Ash x Renamon Season 10
by marc1986
Summary: This is my take on the tenth season and onward if Ash had a different partner. No offense to any hardcore Pikachu fans I am just trying something new. Copyright: Pokemon characters and locations are from Gamefreak/Nintendo and Cartoon Network. Renamon, and her forms are from Saban Entertainment
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

Freelance fox

"There, that takes care of the third tale, six more to go." A boy said as he began to draw a Ninetales sitting next to a lake. As he was drawing another voice broke his concentration.

"I hope that you're in your bed or studying because you start you journey in one week." The voice is from the boy's slightly overprotective mother. The young boy walked to his door and yelled back to her.

"I will go to bed in a little while, trust me." The boy was hoping to hear a good reply.

"I will let you stay up just make sure that you go to bed soon; goodnight, son." His mother said and turned off the lights in the downstairs. The boy returned to his drawing, but as soon as he picked up the pencil a streak of light zapped past his window.

"Was that a shooting star?" The boy exclaimed as he ran to his window. Indeed it was something, but the boy did not know what it was. "Oh no!" The boy said as he saw where that 'shooting star' was heading. "Professor Oak's place, I have to get over there to see if he's all right." The boy said in an absolute worried tone, he grabbed a worn blue and white jacket and was about to bolt downstairs when he remembered, "Mom is downstairs, she'll stop me." He turned around, "The window is my only option." The brash boy thought as he opened his window and jumped straight down. "I can't believe that I made that jump." The boy thought as he looked up to his window. "Now to Professor Oak's house." He thought and ran in that direction. Once he arrived he noticed an unusual fog in the mountains. He climbed up the mountain constantly thinking of what he saw just a few moments ago. "What on Earth could that have been?" He thought, after he made it to the other side of the mountain. "Blast, it's even thicker here. Still I have to see what's in here." He thought and as he could not see what was around him he heard a sound that made him stop dead in his tracks. It was the sound of flesh ripping; he followed this strange noise to its source. "What can possibly make that noise?" He thought and as the strange fog was clearing he saw what was making that noise. "That's impossible, that can't be a pok`emon." Is all the boy thought as he saw a yellow fox tear into a catfish and throwing its bones to the side. The boy was in awe at the grotesque yet wondrous scene before him.

"Who's there, show yourself if you want to live to see tomorrow." The creature said looking around from side to side trying to find the intruder it heard. The boy slowly walked out of the brush and into plane sight still not sure what it is going to do.

"It's me I've been looking at you." He said with plenty of fear in his tone. The creature turned around and the kid saw it in full size: it was a foot taller then him, it had a white stomach, hands and feet, it also had blood around the mouth, hands, and white fur on its chest. The only thing that captivated him were its eyes…they were a sky blue color.

"What are you staring at?" The creature stated, snapping him out of his thought.

"Sorry, this is my first time seeing such a beautiful creature before in all of my life." As soon as the boy said that he immediately he thought to himself: "Smooth very, very smooth." He glanced at the fox and noticed that it was looking deeper into the valley.

"You have to leave now!" The creature said with its statement dripping with worry. Before he knew what was going on the boy found himself back in the brush; as soon as he stood up he heard another voice.

"You honestly thought you could get away from me: my little doggy. Bad move, now you will need to learn some manners." With that said this new creature began to attack the fox with unneeded force. With a lot of fear he walked over to the edge of the brush, poked his head through it, and saw a green and red dinosaur beating up the fox.

"I have to help." The boy thought and without thinking he picked up the biggest branch he could find and ran out at full speed. "Hey, scale butt pick on someone your own size." He bellowed to the dino, he leaped as high as he could and swung the branch, but it broke as soon as it hit his knee.

"Nice try, but why don't you try this." The red lizard said and swung his claw catching the boy and tossing him into the mountain.

"Ok that didn't work." Was all the boy had to say when he hit the mountain. As he climbed down the mountain, with a scratched up back he heard a strange noise. When he made it to the ground he realized the sound was coming from his pocket, he reached in and pulled out a cell phone that was reacting to something. "What is with this thing?" He asked himself as he began to shake the phone then he saw a bright light where that fox once stood. When the light dimmed he saw a four legged fox with a red and white bow in its place.

"So you digivolved big deal, I'm still going to crush you." The dinosaur said and ran toward them before the battle scarred boy could blink the creature was gone but the fox ran right to him, growling at him.

"What did I do?" Is all he could manage to say. The fox showed the boy its side and asked him in a compassionate tone.

"Would you like a ride, home?" He nodded at the creatures offer. "Clime on, but don't pull on the bow." The creature said, the boy nodded and got on its back. Before he knew it he was already halfway home.

"Over there, that's my house." The young boy said pointing to a house in the distance. The fox creature nodded and stopped right at the front door. He got off the yellow back and walked over to the house and as soon as he touched the doorknob a thought entered his mind. "My mom should be in her room by now, so she won't hear the door open." He turned around and wanted to thank his new 'friend' for the ride but as soon as he turned he didn't see anything. "Where did that creature go?" Was all the boy muttered before he went inside; as soon as he was in the doorway he saw the fox just sitting in his Living room.

"You should take care of those wounds on your back and chest." The fox said looking at the now blood red chest. He nodded and got a first aid kit from the kitchen; he knew that his mother put a first aid kit in every room in the house even the closets. After a few moments of searching he found a small white box.

"I found the first aid kit!" The fox told the boy a specific order.

"Very good, bring it here and I'll bandage you up." This boy did not know what to think, but he obeyed just the same. The first aid kit was carefully placed next to the creature's front left paw, and she went right to work. He took off his tattered jacket and thought it to be a painful ordeal but he was amazed of how gentle she was.

"Wow, your good at this…uh…what is your name?" The young man said as the fox spun him to face her to bandage that chest of his.

"You may call me Kyubimon or Renamon which ever you prefer." The creature said in a soothing tone. While she was bandaging him the boy was captivated by her beauty. After the fox was done securing the last bandage with her paw the boy stood up and said

"Thank you…Kyubimon; would you like to stay for the night." He was almost pleading for her company. The big fox seemed reluctant to accept this naive boy's proposal. "Of course if you want to go…go." He continued before going upstairs; he took one last look down stairs, but saw nothing. "I guess she left." He thought before continuing on upstairs. As he opened the door nice and slow so it didn't wake up his mom he saw Kyubimon sitting in the room.

"Are you coming in or not? You asked me what my name was but you didn't tell me your name." The creature stated to him. He walked in, closed the door and replied

"My name is Ash Ketchum future Poke`mon Master." He walked over to his bed and went right to sleep. The fox followed him, but stared at him thinking…

"Ash, that's an interesting name." She walked to his bedside and began to sleep too. "That's strange I feel a little warmer." The vixen thought before waking up and seeing that Ash's cover is on her. "I suppose I should put this back on him." The fox muttered before using her teeth and front paws to cover Ash back up; after doing so she found herself staring at the boy so she slept on that side of the bed.

"Man, I haven't slept that good in a while." Was the first thing Ash said as he woke up the next morning. He looked down and saw the same fox creature that he saw last night with its back against his nightstand. "At least I know that what happened last night wasn't a dream." Ash thought before a sharp pain shot through his back he continued his thought, "Nope definitely not a dream." He got out of bed and carefully put on a black T-shirt.

"Where are you going, Ash?" A voice said while the trainer got ready.

"I was going to go out for a while…walk or eat." Ash said as he put on another blue and white jacket. After doing so he turned and saw the fox standing there, in front of his window facing him. "Would you like to come with me…Renamon?" Ash asked wanting to show her around his town during the day.

"Of course" The creature said before walking over to Ash and looked at him square in the eye. "…but are you sure that you can?" The young boy could see in her eyes that she was worried about him, so he nodded as a response. "All right, I will be outside waiting for you." She said and vanished without a trace. All the boy could say after watching the fox disappear was…

"Wow…oh yeah I've got to go." With that he walked out of his room and was almost to the door when he saw his other jacket still torn up. "What am I going to do with this?" He thought as he picked up the tattered cloth. As Ash franticly looks around for a place to hide it he heard footsteps coming his way. Along with a feminine voice,

"Ash is that you down there? What are you doing up this early? You usually stay asleep until noon." Ash began to panic as the footsteps came closer; he ran into the kitchen and threw into the garbage and closed the lid.

"That takes care of that, but what does mom mean by 'early'?" The youth thought before he looked at the clock on the wall. "What the heck?" Ash yelled at himself seeing the time: 6:30. "That is funny I never wake up this early maybe on occasion, but not often." He thought and headed toward the door; right when he had his hand on the doorknob his mother asked him the usual question.

"Where are you going, Ash? Not into the forest I hope; you know how dangerous it is and you don't have a Poke`mon yet." Ash quickly turned around with a smile on his face and told her a slight lie.

"Don't worry mom, I'll be all right. No, I am not going into the forest I am going for a walk." Before his mom could ask any more questions he left as fast as he could. He looked around to make sure no one was around before he called out, "Renamon, are you out here?"

"Ash, get over here now." A voice stated and he walked in that way.

"I'm coming, Renamon." Ash said softly as he was walking in the direction of the voice. Before too long he found himself in the forest at first he thought, "Maybe the voice came from somewhere else." A yellow blur that stooped in front of him to change his mind.

"Walk with me, Ash." The creature said in a mellow tone. Ash followed even though he felt a bit weird in the forest. "What is your dream?" Renamon asked out of the blue, she glanced over and saw that the boy was caught off guard so she asked again. "What is your dream?"

"That is a silly question, Renamon; to be the greatest Poke`mon master of all time." The boy said with a big grin on his face. The vixen had to smirk at the boy's enthusiasm. "Why did you ask that question anyway, Renamon?" At first she did not know how to answer that until she saw something in the forest and motioned to it. She sat on a fallen tree and Ash sat next to her.

"I asked that question because I have a dream too at least you can call it that." The vixen said capturing the trainer's attention. He asked with curiosity in his voice.

"Don't hold me in suspense. What is it Renamon, what is your dream?" She looked down and found the boy pretty entertaining company even though he wears his emotions on his sleeves. She let out a deep sigh and said.

"I want to be the most powerful Digimon of all time." After stating her dream she saw utter confusion on his face.

"What is a Digimon, some sort of Poke`mon?" The immature boy asked the fox while scratching the back of his head. Renamon could only chuckle at Ash's naiveté.

"No, Ash, a Digimon is short for Digital Monster; a race of monsters that is composed of data." She stopped momentarily to see Ash's expression of sheer curiosity. "When ever a battle is completed by two or more Digimon the winner absorbs their data." She then heard a sound of utter disgust after she said that. She looked at Ash and saw a look on his face that the wise fighter has seen—anger. "What is the matter Ash? Why do you look so sickened by that fact?"

"I am; I understand that you had to do that to that lizard creature to save me…right?" The boy asked in an upset tone. He then looked at the vulpine right in the eye hoping that he was right.

"Yes…yes I did." She told the young boy before thinking, "Actually I had no intention of protecting when I destroyed Tyranomon, but" The wise fox looked down at the boy who seemed to be in a hunched position. "I am glad that he is safe."

"Why on earth would you destroy an opponent? When both of you could become stronger and battle again." Renamon was snapped out of her thought after hearing that statement.

"He is so kind and so gentle, I bet any Digimon would feel honored to be his partner…of course all but me I need a strong tamer not one with a kind heart." That is what she thought until she saw the look on this boy's face. "I do it to become stronger." She said aloud not knowing that she would get a response.

"I get that much Renamon." The trainer said keeping his gaze on the ground. She let out a sigh and retorted

"No you don't I need their data to digivolve." She said but another question was asked…

"Digivolve, what is that; some kind of new attack?" All Renamon could do was stare into the boys brown eyes and admire his innocents.

"No Ash, Digivolve means I change my appearance, and I am able to do that ability three more times." The fox looked down and saw much confusion on the boy's face so she continued, "In order to do that I need a strong tamer." That snapped Ash out of his confused state.

"What do you mean Renamon; I am strong." Renamon was shocked at his statement it had hint traces of anger and sorrow. She wanted to tell him that he was not strong and he would never be her partner, but something inside of her was forbidding it. Out of the blue she ignored the trainer's statement, stood up, and told the boy…

"You better get back home, Ash." She wanted to leave so bad until…

"Can you go with me; if you aren't too busy?" The boy said in an almost pleading tone. Renamon turned and saw the boy's hand on her wrist then she saw in his eyes that he really wanted her to come. The vixen silently nodded and stood up. "You won't regret it, Renamon." The young trainer stated with a smile.

"We better get going, Ash." The vixen said with a quick turn around. As they were walking there was one thing that kept going through Renamon's mind, "Why didn't I tell him the truth? Why didn't I tell him that he was not fit to be my tamer?" As she tried to put together the answers Ash tried to figure out something too.

"She says that she needs to absorb data to digivolve, but some how she did digivolve. I was really hoping for Renamon to be my first choice; we would make one heck of a team." The trainer thought picturing a pile of Poke`mon and Renamon on top of them before countering with, "Unfortunately she is searching for a 'strong' trainer, and I shouldn't try and stop her." He thought sadly, before he knew it he was staring at his front door. Before he opened the door his mother almost ripped the door off its hinges.

"Ash Ketchum you were at Professor Oak's lab last night, weren't you?" His mother said in an almost yelling tone; at first he could only stutter until he saw his old jacket in her hand.

"Yes I was, but something crashed and I had to…" He stopped when he saw that his mom was on the verge of tears.

"Ash you only have a few short days until your journey and I am really worried about you." She said as she cried, Ash just put a comforting hand on her shoulder and said to her in an honest tone.

"Don't worry, mom, I'm all right." With that he walked inside and into his room. He pulled up his shirt and thought, "Well at least she didn't see these bandages." He sat on his bed and thought of only one thing, "I wonder if Poke`mon can talk like human just like Renamon." As the boy was thinking of that useless tidbit of information Renamon, who was lying on Ash's roof, was also thinking about something a little more important than that.

"How am I supposed to do get back home?" Then she went a little deeper into that question, "Do I even want to go home?" Several images of Ash flashed into her mind. "Of course I have to go Ash is just too kind to be my partner." She yelled into her mind to make those images stop. After an hour she heard a strange noise coming from Ash's room. "I better go see if he is in any danger again." The vixen muttered to herself as she disappeared from the roof and into Ash's room. She glanced around and didn't see any trouble just a sleeping black haired boy. "That's strange, why did I even come down here?"

"Huh? Who said that?" The boy said as he sat up and looked around his bedroom. Everything seemed to be all right there was no harm being done then he sees a dark figure. "Who's there?" The statement was dripping with fear and Renamon could sense all of that terror in that question. She did not say a word she only walked which made Ash even more nervous.

"Don't worry Ash. It's just me." Renamon said in a soothing tone as she put her hand on his face. "It is all right, Ash, it's all right." Is all she said while she tried so hard not to comfort him too much. "I did not mean to frighten you, I only wanted to see you if you were all right." As soon as she said that Ash put on a brave front.

"Frightened, I was not frightened. I was surprised that's all." He said as he turned his head away from her. Renamon only smiled at Ash, at how he expressed all of the emotions quite well. She stood up after looking at Ash for a few moments she told him.

"If there is no danger then I will be on my way." She said, Ash tried to stop her, but he was too late she was already gone. So he shrugged off her visit and went back to bed. Back on the roof she thought with a bit of happiness, "I suppose I can stay here for a little while, I'll consider it as a vacation." With that thought secured into her head she fell asleep too.

"Man, looks like another beautiful day." Ash said as he looked out of his window. After putting on a black shirt she mother walked in and asked him.

"Can you take these two bags of apples to the neighbors, please?" Ash nodded, took the apples from his mom and left. Renamon was still on his roof until she heard the door shut, she looked and saw Ash.

"I wonder where he's going this early." Thought the vixen then she saw the bags in his left hand, and decided to follow him. Ash stopped in front of a red house and knocked on the door, and when it opened a woman around his own mother's age answered.

"Here are the apples you asked for." The young boy said as he handed the bag to her. The woman seemed to be happy about this delivery

"Thank you, Ash, and tell you're mother thanks." The young lady said and as soon as she turned around an energetic red fox leapt onto Ash. For some reason the yellow vixen seemed to get angry about that.

'That hairball better think twice if it knows what's best." She considered for a moment. "Calm down, Renamon, it isn't like you…like him?" Renamon thought to herself and left that last part for later. Back on the ground Ash was just laughing from all of the face licking.

"All right, you can get off now." The boy struggled to say through the laughter and the licking. The red coated dog obeyed and got off the deliverer. Back in the tree Renamon began notice Ash kept that helpful attitude and aided the people do matter how small the request.

"He really is too nice to be my partner." The purple gloved creature thought as she watched him take out the trash for an elder. Several tasks later the future monster master trudged home. She found herself amazed by after doing all of those tasks that he still had the strength to walk. The fox leapt from the roof to a window that viewed the kitchen and it was there that he also enjoyed eating. She tried her best not to laugh at his enthusiasm as he gulped down the food.

"That was great, mom, and thanks." Ash said and his mother chuckled and retorted with,

"I'm glad you enjoyed it Ash, but you better some rest because in three days is the beginning of your journey." She said with glee and at first so was her son that was until he told himself.

"That means I only have a few days with Renamon, and I have to make every second last with her." With that Ash walked up to his room, and Renamon, whom also heard the conversation, was actually saddened by this fact.

"I heard that you only have a few days to go until your journey begins." Renamon said, trying to find just the right thing to say as she laid there on his roof. As she stared at the stars just trying to forget Ash she heard a voice…

"Hey Renamon, can you come down here for a minute." The voice came from Ash whom opened the window. She did as he asked and came into his room.

"What do you want Ash? Your mother told you to sleep." The fox said as soon as she went into his room, not wanting to see him. He ignored her statement and asked her…

"Do you feel like going for a swim?" She was taken back by that question, but she nodded to it. "That's great, because I know of a hot spring not to far from here." He said with excitement which made her feel a little bit worse of her decision. "It's not all that far off either, it's off in that direct…" He stopped talking and pointing when he was being picked up in a pair of strong arms.

"I better carry you then." The fox said and before the trainer could refuse her help they were off. Before he could blink they were already in front of the hot water.

"Thanks, Renamon, but you didn't have to carry me." Ash said when his canine friend put him down. She ignored that and asked him

"How were you able to find this place?" At first the boy did not know how to answer to that question so he tried the truth.

"Even though mom constantly tells me not to enter this area until I'm older but…uh…" He couldn't bring himself to finish so she did it for him.

"You do it anyway, right?" He nodded and decided to go into the water while he still felt like it. As he began to take off his clothing Renamon immediately asked him, "What are you doing?!" Ash turned to the utterly embarrassed fox and said calmly.

"Well I was going into the water, but I don't want my other clothes getting wet." He stood there wearing his boxers and jumped in…

"He definitely is something else." She thought and felt water splash on her feet. She looked at the water and saw the black haired boy in the water.

"Come on, Renamon, jump in!" Ash exclaimed, motioning her to come in with him. The yellow vixen didn't feel right about going in. "The water is great, and I bet you need after that dinosaur fight." Ash stated, trying to use that to his advantage. With a defeated sigh she walked into the water and felt relief instantly. They each rested at the far ends of the hole just staring at the stars. "Does the Digital World have starry nights like this?" Ash asked just off the top of his head. For a few minutes she just stared at the sky and answered him in an almost sorrowful tone

"No, they don't." Is all she said and for a few minutes neither of them said anything else until… "Ash, what did you do that for?" Renamon demanded after getting splashed and after a few minutes she received an answer.

"Sorry, it's just it was getting too serious for my taste. Is that all right with you?" He asked and the only thing he saw was a wet fox face staring at him. Before he knew it she splashed him with water too. Before too long the two began splashing one another and actually having fun. As they were having fun Renamon kept telling herself.

"You must find a way home, you must find a strong tamer, and this stuff is not helping." She ignored that thought and continued playing. After what seemed to be hours they finally stopped and both caught their breaths for a few moments, and in those moments the trainer told his friend in an excited tone…

"That was awesome, Renamon. We should do that tomorrow night too. What do you say?" The fox was speechless that Ash wanted to do that again. After a few moments she walked up to him and wrung out her tail right on his head and got out of the water. A few moments passed as she stood there before she told the future Poke`mon master.

"I would like that a lot." With that said the boy got out of the water, picked up his clothes, and Renamon picked him up. "Let's go home, Ash." She said before running at top speed back to his house. That was how things were for the next few days: Ash did charitable work in the morning and afternoon while in the evening he and Renamon went to that hot spring. Those days were great to both Ash and Renamon, but all good things must come to an end, and the day before Ash started his journey proved it.

"Ok, Renamon, I'm back and I was able to grab some chow for you." Ash said as he went into his room after returning from a party. He set the food on his desk and told the vixen, "The foods on my desk, I'm going to bed, I have a big day tomorrow." By that time he had his green pajamas on, but his good mood was cut short when she said in a pain driven tone

"I'm going back to the digital world, Ash." By this time he was sitting on his bed now with his back hunched. He tried holding in his tears, but he was able to tell her.

"That's great news, Renamon!" As soon as she heard that there was a sharp pain in her chest and she knew why it was there. In these short days she grew to accept Ash's personality and found that it was slightly contagious. What really hurt was what he said next, "I'm sure that you'll find a better partner then I will ever be." After hearing that she found herself walking to Ash for some reason or another.

"No I won't Ash Ketchum, you are truly unique and that is why I will never forget you." The fox spat as she held him close to her with her head on his right shoulder. Needless to say the naïve boy did not see that coming in the least, but he was able to reply back to her.

"I won't either Renamon." With that they separated: Ash to sleep and Renamon to eat. As she ate there was a mumbling along the lines of, "Go Renamon attack now! Great work Renamon, our tenth win." and that brought a small smile to that beautiful face of hers as she ate her rice. There wasn't any more talking for the rest of the night, just Ash's soft breathing and Renamon eating. "Man, I slept great!" The trainer exclaimed as he stretched his arms. "Hey Renamon, are you going to see me off?" He asked but when he did not receive an answer he tried again, "Renamon, are you here?" Still no answer, so he decided that the fox was gone. He got up, ignored the broken clock and went to the desk. The dishes were neatly stacked, but there was also an envelope on them, he opened it and read what it said,

"Two halves of the same coin. Remember Ash you said you wouldn't forget me so don't…or else!"

"I wonder what she meant by that?" He thought then saw a picture to go with it. It was his face and her face; they weren't side to side {half of his face and half of fox girl's} but back to back. Then he looked below that and read the last part.

"Your kind heart and determination with my strength and speed would have made one fine team."

Needless to say, that brought a tear to his eye. His mother's voice was heard through his door.

"Ash are you still up there, It's already 12:00." With that said he folded the letter and put it in his pocket and rushed over to Professor's house yelling at himself to save one for him. Several months has passed since that day: Ash is now on the Orange Islands still on his journey to be a Poke`mon master while Renamon on the other hand was with a girl that was the exact opposite of Ash.

"Was he even real?" The fox thought as she stared at the full moon wondering if the boy that she met was real or if was a dream. At the same time Ash was thinking the same thing: if that wonderful fox is real or just his imagination. In time they both forgot of the other and just continuing on their journeys to be the best.


	2. Chapter 2

Back to the beginning

A yellow fox creature was lying down in a meadow like area. 'Everything is still peaceful.' The canine thought as she looked at the sky. The creature caught sight of what a world known as: Earth looked like in her world. 'I am still so sorry Rika, but Parasimon screwed to Digital world as bad as the D-Reaper.' She added, not wanting to leave her partner a second time.

"Renamon come on and play with us." A red and black dinosaur offered to her with a chocolate brown and pink rabbit on his back. The rest of the partner's creatures were playing in the meadow near her. The dog just shook her head and then walked away. The vixen did not know how to have fun after spending all of her time with Rika Nonaka she had lost that ability. As she walked she couldn't help, but think of a human that she may have met in a dream; at least she thinks that it was a dream. There were very few creatures in the depths of the forest she was in; not out of fear of higher ranked monsters, but because this was the canine's playground. She walked into a cave that had several images of the human in question. As she looked at a face that she drew on a chunk of wood she thought of a dream conversation:

"That's great news, Renamon!" The boy from her mind exclaimed after she said that she was going home. She remembered feeling miserable after hearing that and continued his side. "I'm sure that you'll find a better partner than I will ever be." She recalled comforting him.

"No, I won't Ash Ketchum, you are truly unique and that is why I will never forget you." The vixen remembered dining on the food that he had on his desk along with a phrase before she 'woke up'.

"Go Renamon attack now! Great work Renamon, our tenth win!" She gently placed the piece of wood back down and went back to thinking of the question that has haunted her even when she was in Rika's employ: "Was he real?" She muttered the question aloud; not expecting to get an answer.

"Yes, he was, Renamon." The voice came from a solid white data stream. Back when she battled along side humans she and a few others were sucked into them. The canine also knew that the destination was always random, but this time she knew the end result. 'I better see what they want this time.' She thought while leaving the safety of the cave and into the stream. As she was doing that there was a boy resting for yet another journey.

'Gary's Electivire was potent.' The youth thought, thinking back to his encounter with that creature. He looked at the rodent he has had from the get go and one thing came to his mind, 'Is Pikachu still strong enough to continue the fight.' He took off his had and pulled out a familiar piece of paper that he kept in the lining of his hat. 'This is the REAL reason I NEVER want to be parted with my hat.' He thought while opening it. 'I may have encountered a lot of Pokemon, but nothing like you.' He thought when it was fully opened, but soon put it back and went to sleep.

"You summoned me, your Excellency." Renamon said as she stood before the four that govern the land. A dragon, a phoenix, a tiger, and a twin-headed turtle stood around her: all easily towered over her. She waited for an answer, and was getting a little nervous since she saw what this high of a level was capable of first hand.

"Yes, we did summon you, Renamon." The sensible blue dragon spoke a benevolent tone. She was grateful for an answer, but she was confused of her purpose of being here. "The reason you were called here." The dragon said to her as if he was reading her mind and then added, "Was that you seem a little distracted lately, and we believe we know why. When our realm and the Pokemon world graced into each other for a moment it allowed you to go there for a time."

"But if you decide to go to that world with that lowly human then you will have an even more slime chance of going there since we have very few connections with that world." The bird said in his usual tone. "Are you sure you want to be with that human." He questioned. He may have allowed them to be with humans, but he still did not understand.

"Easy Zhuqiaomon, after all didn't this guy say your Poke world self." The tiger commented calmly which earned him a glare from the four winged bird. Renamon, decided to avoid this level of conflict and answer the question.

"Yes, I am certain." She said and saw that the four were looking at one another for a while and then the dragon turned to her. Out of the four she trusted Azulongmon the most since he was the one that was really on her partner's side.

"We will aid you in your quest to see your old friend." He said to her which she was relieved to hear and then he added, "Take this with you." One of his various orbs shot a thin beam at her left paw which gave off a faint light. When she had opened her hand she was a primitive version of Rika's Digivice. He could tell that she was a little confused over what she held so he filled her in, "That is a simple version of your partner's Digivice. Due to having heard rumors of the person you are about to see; we know cards aren't his style."

"Thank you for this and for letting me be with him." She said to all of them even the anti-human bird. Another white beam appeared before her, and she knew that it was there for her reunion, but she just needed some comfort that the angry sovereign did not set it so she ended up in that pit that Calumon was it.

"Do not worry. You will be sent to the exact same spot where you first met him." The tiger, Baihumon, said to her with his own style of a smile. She bowed to them in a respectful manner and then walked into it.

"Time for a nice nap." Dream Ash said after claiming victory over the whole Sinnoh league and was plopping himself down by a small stream to his left. He sat down and then was about to lie his head down, but what he made contact WAS NOT the ground, but fur. He turned his head and saw that it was yellow, and when he looked up he saw a pair of beautiful blue eyes. The creature gently stroked the right side of his face and softly whispered one word.

"Ash." With that one word he shot up, completely awake. The youth scanned the room and saw nothing was wrong. His rodent may have been in a deep sleep since he did not even budge from his yelp. The boy was about to go back to sleep until he saw a familiar object strike past his window.

'No way.' He thought before jumping out of bed, grabbing his shirt and hat, and then ran out the door. The trainer could only think of one creature that can come from the sky, and he had a feeling of where it was going to land. 'This time I gotta be careful.' He thought after entering Professor Oak's backyard. Within the yard were creatures that he, his rival: Gary, and several others gave to the Prof, but there were a few key members that he needed to avoid. 'Oh, man.' He thought as he narrowly stumbled onto a green brachio creature.

'So, he finally made it.' The vixen thought after hearing a twig snap in the distance along with a familiar scent. After she thought that one thought the boy came out of the brush and saw the creature that streaked past his window, a creature that he had met before his journey even started. He saw that she was only lying by the stream that she once ate from.

"Renamon! It-it really is you!." He shouted, overjoyed to see his old friend. The boy ran over to her, and she stood up ready for what she thought was only going to be a hug. When she caught him and hugged him for an instant she did not know that he ran to her with enough speed for both of them to end up in the stream.

"Your still as emotional as ever." She said to him while being to one closest to the river. The fox creature did not get an answer, but instead a continued hug which she did not mind in fact: she returned it. After while Ash got out of the river and offered to help his old friend out, normally if it was almost anyone that she knew she would have ignored, but for him - no.

"Sorry, but it's great to see you again Renamon, and I never forgot you." He told her and then saw that she asked him to take a few steps back with her hand; he took four steps back and waited. To his amusement she went down on all four paws and shook herself dry like an average canine did. "It really is great to see you again Renamon, but…" He said, and stopped while turning his back to her and looked around. In an instant she knew what he was expecting.

"You don't have to worry of another Tyranomon like last time. I have made quit the reputation back home, so you don't have to be plowed into a mountain to get my attention." She said to him and saw that he was blushing at that last part since it was slightly true.

"Um…right." He said and looked back at her. He saw that she was just as beautiful as the first time. Even as he looked at her he saw that she somehow had a fish in her right hand.

"Shall we, Ash." She said to him, and then put the device down and in a moment got the right stuff for a fire. The vixen tore the fish in two and put one half on the spit and they waited for it to cook. As they waited Ash saw the piece of plastic and pointed at it. "That?" She asked while picking it up and added, "The ones that helped me get here gave it to me - it is to help me digivolve: which I know all of my forms." 'I hope I can still become Sakuyaman?' She thought to herself.

"So, does that mean that you want to be my partner?" He questioned while taking a nibble at his half. The offer of having her on his team was too perfect, and yet one thing kept on coming back to him, a question that he needed to ask. "What of the partner that you wanted?"

"I was able to retrieve a strong tamer, and after a few quarks we were able to be a great team." She dared not say how at first Rika treated her as a tool, or of the damage that she had to take while in her service since she knew that he would be upset (for lack of a better way to put it). "Once me and a few others returned home I kept thinking of you, and with a little help I was able to come here."

"Good to know." He said back to her and then after some hesitation he added, "So, maybe you can join me for my journey to Sinnoh." She smiled, something that was rare back on earth, and nodded at his statement.

"Yes, I would like to see you in action, Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town." She said with a sly smile. The warrior DID want to know how the warrior fought against enemies, and wanted to see if his kind heart strengthened while she was away.

"No, Renamon." He said to her with a small laugh and then added once he calmed down, "I don't want you there as an observer…" He paused to get a firm hold on the device, which was in her hand, "I want you as my partner." That caught her off guard or maybe it was just his hand on hers.

"I…would be honored, Ash." She said with a bow of the head. They finished eating, and putting out the fire, and going back to his place: side by side.

"You do realize that in the morning that I'll have to introduce you to mom and some of my friends." He said when the two were only a block away from his home. Somehow the canine knew that he was right about that much, and just like how she feared Seiko Hata and Rumiko Nonaka: Rika's mother and grandmother's reaction of her existence she feared the same for Ash's family.

"Yes, I know that Ash." She said to him while trying to remind her of what type of world that she was in. This world had creatures similar to that of Digimon, but still different. The two made it to his home and they made it into his room without waking anyone up.

"Where will you sleep, Renamon?" He questioned her, knowing that the last time she was here she preferred the roof. He looked around and knew that his room didn't offer that much in terms of sleeping location. She did not answer instead she walked over to the spot in between the widow and his bed: went down on all fours, curled up in a ball, and began to sleep. 'I guess you'll sleep there, Renamon.' He thought while going back to bed.

'At least there's an advantage of being in this world.' Renamon thought while thinking back to the incident at Rika's home after their train adventure. She recalled taking a nap after stopping Takato from talking to her partner, but was interrupted by Suzie playing with her tail and Calumon laughing on her head. The night went off without a hitch; everything was nice and peaceful. Once morning set in Ash was up and ready to greet the day.

'Well, time for a new adventure.' Ash thought as he looked outside his window. He saw that Renamon was also stirring from her rest. He took another look outside his window and saw that his mother, Tracy (old friend), and Professor Oak, along with some of his creatures were waiting for him. "Ready, Renamon?" He questioned when he saw her standing, and she nodded for an answer.

"Good morning, Ash." A grey haired man with a white lab coat said when he saw the adventurer coming toward them. He smiled at all of them out of kindness while wondering how they would react to Renamon. He also saw that his mom was sad that he was leaving…again, but he could never say no to adventure.

"So, Professor, you'll take care of my other Pokemon, okay?" Ash questioned even though the boy knew that the elder already knew the game plan. He did not show his latest addition to them just yet.

"Sure, when you get to the Sinnoh region I want you to head to Sandgem Town look up Professor Rowen; Brilliant. An expert on Pokemon evolution, and an old friend and colleague of mine." He informed the youth. He knew that aside from helping anyone Ash was also into meeting friends that his friends knew of.

"I'll do it!" He said to the man and then turned to the creatures and added, "Now I want you to be good while I'm gone, okay?" They all gave an answer in their own language which Renamon, who was watching through her friend's window could translate easy.

'Maybe he doesn't want me to come?' She thought since he had yet to give off some or any indication of her, or his likeness of her being with him.

"It's going to be wild around here." Tracy said to the researcher after hearing that five more of his friend's creatures were going to join them. He knew that all of his Pokemon had their own personalities and that was the hardest part to get used to.

"I say so." Oak added and added while digging in his jacket, "And now, I like to present you with this little present." He pulled out a new Pokedex. "It contains all that you need to know about the Sinnoh region." He informed while giving the device to the youth.

"Wow! You gave me a brand new Pokedex. Professor thank you." Ash said after taking his gift and that was when he decided to speak. "Thanks again for the new Dex, but I have an announcement too. Pikachu, I won't be needing you this time." This shocked all of them and then he added while looking up at the second story window, "That's your cue Renamon." In a gust of wind a humanoid yellow fox with yin/yang symbols and purple gloves stood beside him. "Renamon?" He questioned not knowing that she was already there.

"Ahem, I'm over here, Ash." She said which gave him a start. She looked at the others and bowed to them. "Please forgive me. I am Renamon - a Digimon: Digital Monster. A creature separate from your world entirely, but I do know Ash, and I wish to travel with him." She told the three.

"I met her before I started my journey; that's why it was hard for me to get going. Don't worry, I trust Renamon with my life." He said to them, and all of them knew that his judgment in friends was as good as anyone would hope. They looked at one another they nodded as one and decided not to keep Ash waiting.

"Good luck with this friend, Ash." The elder man said to him first.

"Drop us a line whenever you can." Tracey said to the boy and the fox.

"Come back soon." Delia Ketchum, his mother said to them.

"I will mom." He answered back. Renamon for emphasis that she was the only one going took the rat on her partner's shoulder and tossed it on top of an elephant like creature.

"I'll make sure of it." She said to the mother and ran after her old friend. His creatures that were there gave him a Good-bye even Pikachu, even though he got replaced, but no one noticed the pitiful expression on the purple simian.

"He's off on a new adventure." Oak said when the two were out of view. The mother of the fighter could only nod to his comment and added.

"Yes, but setting off on new adventures is something Ash is awfully good at. That is what makes my Ash: Ash." Soon the two of them made it to their ship and were on their way. Surprisingly no one asked about the big yellow dog beside him: mainly because of her glare or by the fact that they thought that she was some form of Lucario.

"The Sinnoh region…" Ash to himself in awe and then added, "You ready buddy?" He glanced over to his right while resting on the deck of the ship. The vixen looked at her old partner and decided to answer him honestly.

"Yes, I am." She said to him which made him smile. As the two were enjoying the quiet and the beauty of the sea, a big gust of wind caught the bill of his had and flung it off. The two watched in relief as the lid was still on deck, but heading down stairs, or at least they thought it was. Right when it looked like it was about to fall in: it stopped. Both were caught off guard, but Renamon stood in front of Ash: thinking that it might be an enemy. To their surprise it was Aipom - holding the hat on its tail.

"Aipom!" The purple monkey said in excitement after exposing itself.

"Hey, Aipom, you followed the two of us all this way?" Ash questioned even though he already knew the answer. He realized that there was usually one member with that kind of affection for him: Bayleef mostly. IT gave the boy a 'yes' in standard monkey vocabulary. "Well, welcome aboard." The youth said to the primate. He knew that a U-turn would take too long and he was going to need all the help he could get. As Ash gave the monkey a proper greeting with Renamon three familiar faces were clinging onto his boat.

"That twerp's going to be toast." A red head said to the others while trying not to suck in the salt water.

"As well as one Pikachu short." A short lavender haired man said even though that he had long since cared for catching the creature.

"This time we're really making WAVES." The third one and the two others had to shout out the last part since a big wave slammed them. Back at the railing Ash had gotten done with the meeting between the two and was right now resting his hands on the rail.

"Awesome! All right Sinnoh islands - look out! You better get ready for us!" Ash shouted while looking forward.

"Very true, Ash." The canine said to him. She may not have sounded enthused, but truthfully she was. She liked the idea of teaming with him in battle.


	3. Chapter 3

A new beginning for all

Ash, his old friend: Renamon, and Aipom were still on deck watching the oceans surface as they headed to the Sinnoh region. 'I can't believe I am with Ash when he starts a new journey.' The canine thought as she glanced over at her friend. The scene was nice and so was the smell of the sea, but that was interrupted by someone's stomach growling.

"Renamon, was that you?" Ash questioned the yellow vixen since he knew what his stomach sounded like, and what he heard didn't sound like his gut. This made the Digimon a little nervous since she was able to keep her body from making such noises on Earth, and always felt bad when it happened. "Come on, let's go inside and get some chow." He said to her and guided her to the stairs that they used to come up with the simian on his shoulder. When the three made it down the stairs Renamon was able to smell the delicious scent of food.

'Oh lord that's a good smell.' She thought as she caught wind of cooked fruits and veggies along with meat. Back on Earth she helped the others make bread when they were facing the D-Reaper, and it tasted great even though four armatures, one bread lover, and one baker's son made it. The strange part of that adventure would had to have been when Rika actually laughed.

"Hey, Renamon, you coming?" He questioned to her as he was already walking to the cafeteria, led by his own stomach. She shook away the memory of the laughing red head and followed. The three saw a buffet table, went over there to get their food, and found a spot. After they sat down the vixen saw him take out a small silver container, and poured its contents if front of the monkey.

'Still very helpful.' She thought as she watched that. "Shall we dig in?" She questioned and got a nod out of him and then they began to eat. "It's kind of weird to be eating near someone." She whispered softly to herself since when they ate before facing the D-Reaper she ate in the corner: alone. While they ate there was another in the locating that they were going to about to start her journey.

"Dawn, are you up?" A woman said in a motherly tone on the other side of a bedroom door. The girl in question was taking another look at her hair, but she was able to answer.

"I am so up." That said the woman, her mother, walked into the room. Her mom was similar to Delia in age, but had dark blue hair and a simple outfit of white shirt and blue jeans with a pink/red sash over her pants and slip on shoes.

"Morning dear." The mother said after entering the room. She saw that her daughter was sporting a black and white top with a pink skirt, and long black socks. 'I really wish that she chose something else for her lower half.' The mother thought as she remembered all the womanizers that she met up with in her day.

"Morning mom." The girl said back to her mother.

"I had a feeling you'd wake up early today." The elderly woman said as she continued to step forward, to get a better look at her child.

"Mom, I'm ten years old." Dawn told with her hands on her hips. She then bent down to see her mother's oldest friend a feline Pokemon. "Morning, Glameow." She said to the gray and white cat. The creature in question ignored her, walked over to Dawn's bed, jumped and slept on it. The two then decided to let the creature nap, so mother and daughter went to the kitchen to talk shop.

"I hope you finished packing?" The mother asked while giving her offspring a cup of hot tea since she knew her kid wasn't too good when it came to time management. The girl accepted it, and was proud of her prep work.

"Uh-huh. Did it all yesterday." She answered to her mother. The mom was glad to hear that, and then decided to bring something else up.

"Just in case you forgot: did you pack the postcard from Professor Rowan?" She asked while putting the pot back on the maker. "You won't be able to get your Pokemon without it or your Pokedex." She added to her, not wanting her to be late like a trainer she read about on a blog site.

"I know mom." She answered and then dug into her back pocket for the necessary item. "See?" She said when she pulled out the right item. "I'd never forget this." She added, which was true since she had it on her ever since she got it three weeks ago.

"Good. So, have you decided on which of those three Pokemon you are going to pick?" The mother questioned since, to her, and most other trainers, that was the hardest part.

"Not yet." Dawn answered back feeling down that she didn't know and today was the deadline. "They're all so cute." She said while looking at the pictures on the postcard. "The thing is I'm sure any of them would make an awesome partner." She added. "I've got to be smart though. I want to be a top coordinator like you mom." The daughter said as she looked at the: seven awards, four pictures, and one ribbon on the wall in front of her.

"Then first off: your going to have to become a great Pokemon trainer." Her mother said while leaving the counter she was behind and sat at the table. "And a breeder too." She added as she looked at pictures of herself and Glameow together, and by themselves. "Please remember dear - all winning coordinators started off as Pokemon trainers." She said to her, and prayed that her daughter could listen and gawk at the same time.

"Your right mom. That's just what I'll do." The daughter said and then her imagination came into play. She imagined a wall to wall crowd cheering at her.

"And now our next coordinator making her debut it's Dawn from Twinleaf Town." The announcer in her mind said and the person in question took the hint.

"All right, Chimchar: spot light." She said sporting a pink and plaid dress in this fantasy while throwing a Pokeball.

"Chimchar!" A fire red monkey said after being released from its prison.

"Now use Flame Wheel." She instructed to the Pyro class creature. The creature shouted its name and then preformed the attack, and after spinning around for a time the flames vanished and the monkey stood by her side.

"An astounding Flame Wheel by Chimchar." The announcer, and that brought her back to reality.

"There, what did you think of that mom?" Dawn questioned after playing pretend before her mother.

"Top coordinators need to eat Breakfast too." The mother of the new trainer said wanting her to get back to the table. The girl then went to thinking of one of the other creatures.

"Or Piplup. Piplup is a water type Pokemon." She said and pictured the second option. "Piplup - spot light." Her fantasy self stated while wearing a green dress and threw that Pokeball.

"Piplup." The ocean blue penguin said after leaving it's portable home.

"BubbleBeam, go." Dream Dawn said and once again the creature used said attack in front of an audience.

"Wow! Now that's the definition of the perfect BubbleBeam." The mental referee said after watching the bubbles explode into the sky. Back in reality her mother was beginning to worry for the young one.

"Couldn't this wait until after we eat." She suggested since she knew the main thing to due before was to eat Breakfast, and this wasn't helping.

"Or Turtwig a grass type." Dawn said, ignoring her mother, and thought of how that dream would be. "Go Turtwig: spot light." She called out while wearing the same blue suit her mom wore in one of her pictures, but with a top hat.

"Turtwig." The forest green snapping turtle announced after coming out of the captive ball.

"Use Razor Leaf." She said and threw: fourteen pink balls into the air. The first stage creature did as she asked and cut them all in half with the asked for attack.

"What do you think of that." Present Dawn questioned her mother while spinning around the room. Again her mother was concerned for her daughter's strong imagination, but she did not want to put her down because of it, so she spoke of the start of her journey.

"I think you keep messing around you won't be able to get any Pokemon." Johanna said to her daughter. The statement got the child's attention.

"Huh? Right, sorry mom." She said and then decided to get the suitcase that she packed the day before. The mother on the other hand walked over to the front porch for some fresh air, and to see the blue sky.

"What a day! Perfect for starting on a journey." She said after looking at the partly cloudy sky. She then heard a noise and said to the soon to be traveler, "So, Dawn, are you ready?" The mother saw that her daughter was using one of their big pink suitcases.

"Oh, yeah." The daughter said after coming to a stop with the suitcase between them.

"Oh, what's all that?" She questioned since she herself didn't even need a thing half that size on her quest.

"It's just all my stuff. It's not like I packed things I don't need." She explained to her mother.

"Let me see." Her mother said and without argue, since she wanted her mother to be proud over what she packed, she wheeled the case back inside and opened it. "It's all clothes." She said that the big case was filled to the brim with different styles of clothing.

"That and some jewelry, and some face stuff." Her trainer daughter said in a 'its nothing big' tone to her elder.

"Do you know what your journey is for?" The mother questioned while holding an outfit that according to her daughter she was going to wear at Grand Festival.

"To be a Pokemon trainer, right?" She asked back. Wondering why she was asked that since they had just talked about this at the table.

"Exactly." Johanna said and then walked over to the counter where she had the right stuff ready for her daughter. 'Which means this is plenty." She adds while showing a yellow and white travel bag.

"Aw, that it?" She questioned, disappointed at the size of the package before her.

"If you want to be a top trainer and a smart traveler then trust me." The mother commented and pushed the bag closer to the traveler.

"Okay, mom." She said accepting the bag, but was still bummed over not taking all of her stuff. She walked over to the door and was about to walk down until the deck stairs to get started until her mom called out.

"One more thing." She started and the daughter turned and saw an orange ribbon in her mother's hands. The girl seemed confused so her mom filled her in, "That's the first Championship Ribbon I ever won in a contest. I always kept it as a good luck charm. Now if you will, I'd like you to carry it too." The request sort of shocked her descendent a little bit. "As long as you don't lose it you can keep it." She said with a smile since she knew how the kid was some times.

"Wow, thanks mom. Well, see you soon." She said and she was off. She got on her bike and was about to leave when she heard her mother's directions.

"Professor Rowin lives just outside Sandgem Town. Do you know how to get there?" She really hopped that her child knew how to read the map that was on the card.

"Don't worry about me." She started and then dug out the card and added, "I've got this map right here." She then put it away and then looked at the road ahead.

"Do your best and take care of yourself." The mother instructed as she watched her ride off.

"No need to worry." She said back and then hit a pebble which caused her bike to shake, and give her mom a start, but she was able to straighten out. "See I told you, Bye." She said when she was a good distance away from her house.

"Every time she tells me not to worry is when I worry the most." The mother confesses to her cat, who is sitting on the wooden banister around their front porch. The cat had no opinion on that human it simply lied on the banister in front of its trainer.

"This has got to be Sandgem Town." She said after entering a quiet town while on the paved path of Rout 201 for ten minutes. She soon spots a small building with a clock tower and stops in front of it. "I'd know Professor Rowin's Lab anywhere." She said as she dismounted to go inside. "K, I'm here…for my Pokemon." She said while opening the door with her eyes shut.

"You came to the right place kid." A voice said. Since the voice did not sound of a teacher or higher she opened her eyes and saw that she was in a restaurant. "Hey, your eatin` too aren't ya." The man behind the counter question. With everyone staring at her, the girl high tailed it out of there.

"Oh man. Me and my great directions." She said while speeding away. While rolling she pulled out the card to get another peak at the map and tried three of the four basic directions, but all of them dead ends. "Not there. Wrong way. I want my mom." She said after trying those three ways, and then went down the same road she started at. "Let's see: make a right and then a left, or left then right. Maybe it's upside down?" She questioned, now walking beside her bike trying to understand the card. 'Maybe I should have paid attention to mom when she was telling me about the map instead of looking at the Pokemon pictures.' She scolded herself and bumped into someone since her mind was elsewhere.

"Hello, your looking lost." The bearded man said, hearing her apology, but ignoring it as he could see she was in trouble.

"Huh? Are you talking to me, sir." She questioned to the man in front of her.

"Right. There's no one else here, and your looking very lost." He said and watched as she tensed up.

"Yeah, but I'll be fine." She said back, not wanting another adult worried about her actions.

"Perhaps, but you don't look fine right now." He answered back to her, and that caused her to relax a little before the man.

"Yeah, I guess so." She answered back with a hanging head.

"You must be a new trainer since you got that postcard. Why don't you come with me to my lab and get your starter Pokemon." He offered to her. He knew of the card, since he made and deliver them. The other researchers used the TV for future master, but he preferred the direct approach.

"I guess I could." She started and then realized when he said and added, "Wait, did you say 'lab'?"

"You may be lost, but you can hear. I'm Professor Rowin." He said, not as an insult, but an observation, as he continued walking. "You do want to get your Pokemon, don't you?" He questioned when he could only hear his footsteps.

"Course I do." She said and followed side by side with him. The lab in question was on a flat surface, and had a windmill similar to Oak's but it also had a metal tower.

"And to think we were worried that they weren't going to like it. Now I guess we're going to have to worry if we have enough of this stuff on hand, right?" One of the assistance as he and one other watched the three beginning creatures eat. "Well, I guess they are as hungry as they are cute." He added before hearing the doors to the research part of the lab open.

"What are you doing with those two?" The second assistant questioned as two more helpers have wheeled in two flying Pokemon on a cart.

"I thought it might be a good time to examine them before Professor Rowin comes back." The yellow shirted lab assistant suggested to the two older workers. They looked at the flyers before them.

"Good idea. I'm a big fan of Starly." The orange tie assistant said to the worker and then to the small bird in front of him. "Starly was the very first Pokemon I caught on my journey." He told the others as he then remembered that feeling of a successful capture.

"Yeah? Mine was a Bidoof." The blue tied man countered the orange by saying what he caught.

"Bidoof, huh? My sister's first Pokemon was a Bidoof." The orange said back and then thought, 'She didn't have to brag how her Turtwig was winded by a fight with a Kricketune and was still able to capture the beaver creature.' He shook that memory off and continued to chat with his friends.

'Now's my chance.' The monkey behind them thought as he saw the water type to his right was eating pretty slow. Just as the penguin was about to grab the last pieces of food in it's bowl an opposable hand snatched them away.

"Piplup Pip Pip Piplup Piplup." The blue one shouted in its tongue with water in its eyes. The comment roughly translated to: why did you do that, big bully? Give it back! The monkey creature wasn't really sorry for what he did, and he wasn't afraid to show it.

Chimchar Chim." The red/orange creature said back which meant: Tough luck, talk to the flame. This made the water type more upset, so upset, and start shouting at the monkey.

"Huh? What's going on?" The orange assistant questioned and he with the others watched as Piplup started negotiation with a BubbleBeam. The man-like creature dodged with ease twice, but the junior researchers did not like where this is going, so they tried to stop. "Piplup? Cut it out." The assistant said and grabbed it before adding, "Stop acting like a spoiled child." He did not stop the beak allowing Piplup to continue. Chimchar dodged three more times while jumping around the lab, and even used Turtwig as well.

"Look out." The blue researcher said as the penguin holder turned to face the flyers who got a face full of BubbleBeam. After the attack hit them the older flyer was not happy of being struck at a neutral location.

"Chimchar and Piplup stop it this instant." The oldest of the assistants said with Piplup still struggling in his hands, and Chimchar jumping on the metal guardrail over them along with the two birds flying around.

"Staraptor!" The bigger bird called out as it faced the humans and created powerful blast of air which did a number on the lab.

"Staraptor, what's that whirlwind for." The assistant said while in the wind.

'Why else, I was attacked and you tell me to calm down.' The bird thought and then increased the strength of its flapping wings; soon the wind became so strong that the corner of one of the windows burst open. 'Yes! Free bird!' The wind maker thought before flying off followed by: Starly, Chimchar, and Piplup; leaving four freaked assistants left in there.

"Just perfect. Professor Rowin's away and a new trainer's coming. Now this ?!" The oldest said and then turned to the others and said, "We've got work to do." That said the two newest arrivals tried to clean while the older duo tried to stall their boss, but as they made it to the door they met the one person they did not want to see.

"He's back!" The two announced at the same time while the other two stopped what they were doing to see him.

"Yes. This is my laboratory, isn't it." He questioned to his assistants. All of them knew that it was best if they answered him as one.

"Professor of course it is." He then saw the damage done to his workplace, and didn't like it neither did Dawn.

"Sir, I 'm so sorry about this. We had a slight problem when the Chimchar and the Piplup we had for the new trainer ran into the forest. On top of that while conducting my evolution research Starly and Staraptor got out as well." The newest helper apologized and gave him a recap of what happened.

"At least we still have Turtwig." The blue haired helper said with a sigh of relief as they walked over to the Pokemon table.

"Turt?" The creature questioned after taking a break from eating, and looked at the Prof.

"Yes." He said and gave the small Pokemon a cold look. The look caused Turtwig to shudder with fear and then go back to his food. Dawn came up beside him so she could see the grass type with her own eyes.

"Uh, sir, I'd like to go look for them." Dawn said, deciding it would be best for her to see the whole lot before making her decision.

"You would?" He questioned the novice; surprised that a newbie would say such a thing.

"Yes. We're talking about Pokemon that could be my future partner." She told him with a determined look in her eyes. Personally he would go with a few Pokemon from his lab in hand, but he had a feeling that this may help her get her feet what for what is about to happen.

"Well, just remember if you find them your going to have to crouch down so you can talk to them at eye level. You should be able to calm them down." He informed her on a few tips that may help for even wild Pokemon.

"Ok, I'll do that." She said to him, thankful for the opportunity.

"Good girl, I wish you luck." He said to her. After thanking him for the chance she set out to look for them. As she started that Ash, Renamon, and Aipom were still on the boat, but at a different spot.

"Looks like that's eight matches to…none." The yellow vixen said to her partner while holding an Air hockey mallet in her right paw. The three of them were in the ships Rec. Room, and the human was getting his tail handed to him at the Air hockey table.

"Good match, Renamon. Let's see if I can get it this time." He challenged and tossed the puck on the table, and gave the monkey the money to power up the machine. As soon as the quarters were in their ninth game began. 'I guess even recreation is something she excels at.' The trainer thought as he watched he elegant moves and the facts that her fast reflexes already made the game: six to nothing. For the next ten minutes Renamon often toys with him for fun.

'This is something that I could only do until the very last days with Rika.' The canine thought since at first the girl was all for thinking that she was a weapon. 'I know others didn't see us like that.' She added while picturing: Takato, Ryo, Henry, even Kazu, and Kenta. 'But those guys came second, you were the first, Ash Ketchum.' She thought while looking at him, and then won the seventh shot.

"Maybe we should try something else." Ash offered to her, and then looked around. 'Hmm, all things that Renamon are great at, and I don't want people asking for a trade,' He thought when he saw that everything around she would excel.

"Aipom! Aipom!" The purple monkey said while bouncing on its tail. The two others looked over and saw a pool table by a window.

"Good call, Aipom." The trainer said and headed over to it. The digital damsel saw where he was going, and that only confused her. From what she had seen on television Pool involved rolling spheres, so she wondered how they could do that on a boat. They each took to a different side of the table ready to play.

"The coin slot is on my half." She said and received the right quarters to start their game. The two played the game and once again Renamon showed Ash that she was a pretty lethal Pool shark, but she noticed that Ash was no slouch either. The two had played about three more games, but that was about it. They decided to leave it at that.

"Let's go back outside for some fresh air." He offered them and got happy hooting from Aipom, and a silent nod from Renamon. When they were leaving the room the canine saw a small sign beside the doorframe.

'Warning: some places of Rec. Room has special treated floorboards.' Renamon read and then though, 'I guess that could explain it.' She went up to the same spot that they were at before.

"Still no sign of Sinnoh." He said as he looked off in the distance and saw nothing, but ocean. He heard coming up the stairs and got worried, but as soon as he saw the ears he knew who it was. "Maybe I should tell you a few key things that has happened to me, Renamon." He offered to the fox when she was right beside him.

"I would like that, Ash." She answered him, and as he spoke of his journey there was another that was busy with a pre-journey mission.

"Wow, that Professor Rowin is a really nice guy. Much nicer than I thought." Dawn said after getting some distance from the lab. She ran over to the trees at the edge of his research facility while running past some captured Pokemon. "It's Chimchar." Dawn announced when she saw the Pokemon in question.

'There he is.' Piplup thought as it ran in front of the human and used BubbleBeam.

'When will the bird learn.' Chimchar thought after dodging the attack by swinging to the third tree down.

"Stop it Piplup." Dawn ordered and that was when the penguin turned around and launched it's attack at her. "That's not nice." She said in anger and then saw them go deep into the forest so she added, "Hey you two, wait up." And then gave chase.

"Piplup." A voice shouted which meant: HELP!

"Was that Piplup?" The trainer said after spending a few minutes calling out both of their names. She headed to the source of the sound, and when she got there she saw an original sight. "It was you!" She exclaims as she saw Piplup, Pidgey, Rattata, Weedle, Dunsparce, Zigzagoon, and a Ninjask all on the same web with the monster for beginner's in the center.

"Ariados." A red and black bug said as it climbed the web the others was on. As a proper predator it gave the girl a warning shot of Sludge Bomb, but that only caused her to fall on her butt.

"Ariados, leave them alone." Dawn instructed after getting back up. As an answer she was attacked again. She dodged twice, but then he climbed the web and got into a different spot to try again. She dodged it's next attack and then came face to face with her attacker. "That's it!" She said, having enough of being treated as the bulls eye. "All right Ariados, follow me." She said and ran off. "Hurry." She added when rounding a right corner. "Come on, come on hurry it up." She continued while taking a left with the arachnid right behind her.

'I'm gonna kick her butt.' He thought but shouted it out as, "Aria!" He saw that she had stopped right in front of his web of food.

"Don't worry Piplup. Won't be long now." She said to the water class. Her winking gesture and statement confused the bird. When Ariados got close enough it fired, but she dodged and freed all the captives. "I gotcha." Dawn said after she caught the falling flightless one.

"Piplup. Piplup. Piplup." The penguin shouted at it's rescuer.

"I'm sorry you got scared, but at least your safe." She answered back. She may not have known what was said, but that look said it all, 'your crazy.' Unfortunately as soon as she said that she lost her footing, because the path turned left, causing her to slid downhill. "Me and my big, fat mouth." She said when she pulled herself out of the bushes.

"Piplup." The penguin added which meant: no complaints, here. She got out of the bush, and tried to talk to the Pokemon in her arms.

"But I promise you, your safe now. My name's Dawn and I'm a brand new trainer. How are you?" She told the creature, but when she saw that her face was assaulted by: Peck.

"Piplup Piplup Piplup." It started to complain to the human and she could only guess that it meant: I didn't need your help or want it, so go away.

"Hey, remember you were the one chasing Chimchar, but you're the one that got caught. So, if I were you I'd be pretty embarrassed right now." She said to the water type with her hands to her hips. Her comment only made the beginner creature more worked up.

"Piplup Piplup Piplup." It shouted back while waddling in place and waving its flippers around. 'It was not my fault. The monkey tricked me. I tripped on the web.' Dawn guessed that was what Piplup was trying to say.

"I know the truth hurts, but come on." She said and that was when the bird turned its back to her; the instant that happened the little guys stomach grumbled. "Ah-ha. Now I see why your such a grump." She said with a sly look in her eyes and then added, "Your really hungry, right?" The penguin denied it on the surface, but she knew better. "I knew it. I can read you like a book." She told the penguin who blushed of being found out. She offered Pokemon food, but no dice, and then a team of ten Ariados'. The first one used Poison Sting which caused the girl to fall on her bum.

'There's the girl that interrupted our meal.' The one at point thought. The two tried to flew but they shot out a web to block their path. The two invaders tried to go left, but ended the same way.

"Their mad at us now, we destroyed Ariados' nest." The girl said and even though she got the reason right they did not care. Six of the web-heads used Poison Sting which the two were able to dodge pretty easily, in their limited space, but they made do. When one of the stings hit the pack the Pokemon food can toppled out. "Piplup, listen up, if I distract them with the food you can BubbleBeam the web." She said and did the stunt by throwing the pieces into the air.

'This stuff is pretty good.' One of them thought as they ate. The field leader of them were also enjoying the treat until he heard an explosion and saw the net has been compromised. He watched the Pokemon leave, but he lassoed the leg of the human.

"Piplup get out of here. I'll be fine." Dawn said after her tumble and added, "Hurry." She then glanced over and saw that they were coming for her. The whole team attacked her, and she prepared for it, but didn't feel anything. When she looked at their direction she saw that Piplup was taking the damage for her. "Is that a move?" She questioned while watching the pounding and then added, "I think Piplup's using Bide." Piplup then gave them a taste of their own medicine with a beam attack.

"That gave them twice the damage they gave us. Bide is one of the coolest moves I've ever seen" The girl said and then looked to the exhausted bird. "Piplup thanks so much." She told after going to her knees, but the bird fell to her legs out of exhaustion. "Oh, Piplup." She said as she held the Pokemon in her arms. Ash was done giving a brief description over what he had done for his journey, and she liked what she heard…well most of it.

'It seems that there are at least two others after Ash.' Renamon thought after hearing the whole story, but was concerned with the two Pokemon that had a crush, at least she prayed for that, on her Partner. She had asked for Ash to give her the Pokedex to gain some insight and she thought of one thing, 'One is a dinosaur grass type and the other is a red and white dragon and psychic type, and between them both I think Latias would be the bigger challenge.'

"Renamon, you've been kind of silent since I gave you a heads up over what I have done." Ash said after realizing that she had been pretty quiet, and that wasn't like her. She looked at him and saw the concern in his eyes, but she was reminded of a piece of his story.

"Everything is fine, Ash. I am impressed of how many battles you've won." She said back to him and got her mind on his gym battles instead of her love emotions. "Not that I am complaining but if you are this skilled then why bring me along with you?" She asked since that had been bugging her.

"To tell you the truth after watching you take down Tyrannomon I wanted you on my team because with a friend like you I knew I could take on any threat." He said to her which she did feel honored for such a statement. "Besides, there was a part of me that wanted you around for another reason." He added while grazing her shoulder with his that transfer got a blush out of the warrior; not a big one, just noticeable. The two with the monkey soon stopped their chatter and watched for their destination.

"Hmm? Hey, look Piplup it's Lake Verity." Dawn said after walking out of the forest and into a lake clearing. The sight of the lake excited the creature, but it's stomach had to ruin the moment.

'Oh man, now.' Piplup thought with a blush while being held. She chuckled at hearing that before letting the bird go. She got out her container, but was only able to pour out three pieces.

"That's all that's left. We used all the rest for bait." She explained as an apology with her hand still extended. The water type looked at the food, and was amazed that she sacrificed the food to help save it. The flippers reached for the food and tossed it into the mouth graciously.

"Staraptor." Said creature said it's name causing the two on the ground to look up. It seems that the two flyers came out to spread their wings for a bit, and they snagged Chimchar as a bonus.

"So, let's get back to the lab." She offered while standing up at full height. The Pokemon agreed with a head nod, and they were about to leave until something eerie happened on the lake. "What was that Pokemon?" She questioned after seeing an image floating over the lake, and then nothing. The two headed over to the lab just the same.

"Hmm? There have been stories of a Legendary Pokemon living at Lake Verity for a long time now. That might have been the Pokemon you saw." Rowin told her after hearing what she had seen at the near by lake.

"Wow you think so. Awesome." She said back remembering stories from her mom of a creature and that same lake.

"You've had quite a day perhaps not as expected, but your journey has begun. So, now it's time to give you your Pokeballs and your Pokedex as well." He said wanting to get her started right since they did not have any distractions.

"Here you are." A yellow shirted assistant giving her a pink Pokedex and six Pokeballs, all on a tray.

"You see, this Pokedex will provide you with information on the various Pokemon you are sure to encounter." Rowin said as he watched her open the Pokedex and saw what was inside. "And these are your Pokeballs." He said and showed her how to make them compact small to battle ready big while adding, "Very useful items for carrying your Pokemon around in." He even showed her what was the interior of an empty ball. "Now it's time for you to chose one Pokemon, and these are the three available for first time trainers in the Sinnoh region. The fire type: Chimchar. The water type: Piplup. And the grass type: Turtwig." He said each of their names who in turn said their name to the female. "So do you known which one you'd like." He asked, even though he had a strong guess.

"Yes, sir, I do. Piplup." She said and noticed that the fire type fell down for not getting picked.

"Good then here you'll need Piplup's Pokeball." Rowin said and presented her the ball which she took with a 'thank you'. The trainer walked over to her partner to have a few words with.

"Piplup. You and I have already been through an awful lot. We're really a team." She said and judging by the happy expression on the beak she knew her partner felt the same. "Ok, let's go." She said and recalled the beginner's Pokemon back to the ball. The assistants and the professor headed to the door to see her off.

"One thing's for sure: anything can happen, so anytime you need help just let me know." Rowin informed her that he's always there to help trainers.

"Thank you for everything. Well, see you all later." She said and rode off, away from them. Back on the boat Ash, Renamon, and Aipom finally saw the land of Sinnoh.

"There it is the Sinnoh region." Ash exclaimed as he saw the port. The other two were grateful of the sight.

"Can't wait to get off this boat. I may be able to swim, but I prefer to fight." Renamon said and prayed that Pokemon weren't the light weights that the divines one made them out to be.

"Her, Renamon, Aipom just think of all the Pokemon here. We're going to make lots of new friends, and I'm gonna be the Sinnoh champ." Ash said to them as he stared at the approaching land.

"I'm sure that you will, with my help." The vixen said with a pat on his back. All of them not really caring that they were being watched by the usual crowd even though the trainer knew it ever since the Cafeteria. The trio got off the boat nice and easy, but when they got near a building Ash had to pause their adventure. Give me a sec guys. Need to make a phone call." He said and dialed his friends number.

"So, Aipom did follow you after all. I couldn't find Aipom anywhere, so I thought that might be the case. So you talked it over with Tracey, eh?" The professor of Pallet said as he answered the phone, and saw the simian in question.

"Yep, talked it over last night. Had a feeling about this one, so I decided he's gonna stay with me." He informed which brought Renamon to thinking of last night.

'That's why I thought I saw you leaving your room.' She thought, but quickly went back to listening to them.

"In that case I'll be sure to send Aipom's Pokeball over to Professor Rowin right away." Oak said to the hero of Pallet Town.

"Good thinking, Professor, and thanks a lot." He said back, congratulating his old friend. Unknown to him or Aipom, Renamon saw the balloon through the corner of her eye, but after the tales she decided to humor them despite what her softer side may think, was the feline balloon of the clowns.

"Load and locked. Let's rock." The human male of the team said while thinking, 'That is so not Pikachu, but if Jessie wants me to do this then who am I to argue.' The others were just grateful of getting something.

"Ash." She said to her partner when she felt a glove around her mid-section followed by a pull.

'Them again.' He thought and then decided to play shocked when she was reeled back, "Renamon, who did that?" He then gave chase leaving Oak to wander.

"What's wrong?" He asked, but got no answer. As for the balloon they finally got their prize into the basket.

"Hay, what is dis?! Dis aint Pikachu!" A loud cat, who's mug takes after the balloon shouted when Renamon stood at full height.

"Who cares? A Pokemon's a Pokemon." A red head started and then added, "Now in the case you go." She then looked at Renamon and then the case. "Uh, what do we do James: she's too big for the trap." She whispered to the other human. James as honorable as he was had a plan, but before he could get started he unhooked the rope in the gun, and took the glove off.

"If you would please hold this piece of the rope." He said the her, which made the others fall down, and the vixen stare at him strangely. The Digimon knew that it could flatten them, but from what she heard they do that on their own, so she did as he asked. "Thank you." He said and wrapped the rope around her until he ran out of rope. "Now, please sit down, so we may talk to what to do next." He asked the creature but added below his breath, "Even though Ash will show up, get you, and blow us into the next county.'

'At least the male has a brain over what is about to happen to him.' Renamon thought and then listened to their conversation. Meanwhile Ash on the ground was chasing them on foot.

"Don't these guys ever learn." He questioned to the monkey behind, but got no response. The team in the balloon did not know what to do at this point.

"Before we go to the boss with this unknown shouldn't we know where we are first." The red head said after they did their motto, which had gotten boring real fast to anyone that listens to it, and the looked around.

"You never know where you are so why change?" The cat questioned, knowing that that was a bad idea.

"Aw, come on. Come on after our long trip let's have a little look around." She asked them while looking at James and had an off hours images of the two relaxing on a real couch over looking a quiet city, but it was interrupted by Meowth.

"Little look?! Next thing you'll be wanting to build a house." He said to her angrily.

"So are you implying that my suggestion are less than sound." She demanded to the short eared hairball. The canine watched that, and then to the one that bound her.

'Oh man, this'll get worse before it get's better.' He thought and his face reflected his thought. The other two had gotten into a physical argument.

"I don't have to apply nuttin to a knucklehead like you." Meowth shouted with glowing claws.

"Your such a Pokechild." She said in a dry tone and then put her hand on the blue creature beside her. "You deal with this." She said and turned the creature to face the cat.

"Fury Swipes!" He called out and started scratching the blue one, but soon his blue skin became a red/orange color.

'Didn't Ash say that they had a reflector class Pokemon on their team.' She thought and then did her best to brace for the soon to be explosion. When the bang did go down: the flew into the air.

"Can't ya take a joke?" Meowth questioned the defender of the team. The human male knew that something like this would happen, but he decided to add something to that.

"When it comes to countering the Wobb-ster rules." He told the others which got a response from the creature in question.

"Wobbuffet." He told them which that cat could translate as 'Your right, James.'

That message given he gave one of his own.

"I guess when it comes to flying I guess we all rule." The blue-boy heard that and added.

"Wobbuffet." He said and he said to them, "Your right, Meowth.

"Looks like Team Rockets blasting off again." They said as they flew away unlike Renamon who was left falling to the forest below.

'This guy's good with rope.' She thought as she could not believe how durable they were. As she fell below the canopy she saw Ash and Aipom running over to her. 'Good thing I have you.' She thought before losing sight of him, and landed on some branches along the way.


	4. Chapter 4

Old friends reunited and new ones made

Dawn and her new friend Piplup, who was in its ball, were racing down route 202 on her pink bike, which had yet to face the same fate as two others. After a while she dismounted from the cycle and jogged down a hill. "Piplup, come on out." She shouted as she threw the ball before her. The penguin shouted its name once summoned. The creatures trainer grabbed it and carried it over to a decent sized imbedded where she rested her back. "Piplup, I am psyched and all, but I'm starting to wander what a new trainer like me does first?" She questioned the creature in her lap which gave a 'huh?' answer in it's natural tongue. "It's a deal: let's go catch us a Pokemon." She answered to the blue one.

"Buneary bun bun?" A creature about four inches above a foot with brown and yellow fur said after popping out a tough of grass, asking: 'Huh, who said that?' When it heard a human's pledge.

"A Buneary?" The girl questioned before digging out her Pokedex which said to her:

"Buneary: The rabbit Pokemon. By quickly extending its rolled up ears it can launch a powerful attack against it's enemies." She then shut her small computer, happy of the new information.

"We have to watch out for those ears." She said and then looked down at her bird creature and said to it, "So, here's the deal: the best way to catch a Pokemon is to battle it with another Pokemon until it gets weak and that's where you come in. You ready?" Her partner listened and understood.

"Piplup." The water class said which was like saying, 'Let's do this.' The trainer of the beast decided to speak next.

"Okay then, Piplup then let's use BubbleBeam." She shouted and the Pokemon, and that's just what happened. "There's nothing like calling an attack. Awesome!" She yelled with her eyes shut, but when she opened them she watched as the bunny jumped out of the way at the last second. "Aah. What a jump?!" She said in surprise and then watched as it landed behind her creature and to the right. "Peck attack, Buneary's behind you." She said and that's what happened.

"Buneary." The rabbit said which at this point meant, "Too slow." As it went left and dodged the move effortlessly. With it's enemies defense down the brown furred one took advantage of that by striking with one of its ears.

"No." Dawn said after the one hit before running over to her Pokemon. "You, alright, Piplup?" She questioned while shaking the guinea a little bit. "That hurt's. How do you feel." The trainer said after the bunny jumped off of her face to get away.

"Piplup pip." The creature said, and it's human partner could tell by how it's head was sunk the penguin asked: 'How do you think I feel?' She saw her blunder of asking that after that defeat and then decided to fix it.

"Hey, don't let it get to ya. Everyone makes mistakes the first time around." She started to say on all fours and then stood up on her feet and added, "You just got to keep on truckin." Feeling a bit better the penguin added to her statement. The two got back on her bike, with her friend in the basket, and headed down the road. "Hey, Piplup, do you know what a Pokemon Contest is?" She questioned and saw that it did not by the look on the white face, so she explained, "It's so cool. My dream is to be a top coordinator like my mom, so the fist place we're going is Jubilife City because they're having a Pokemon Contest there soon, and it's close. Now, let's get as many Pokemon as we can before then so we'll have lots of help. We got to start coming up with our own combinations too, ya know." The creature in the basket understood and pointed to the road ahead.

"Lup." He said which meant this time, "Let's go."

"So, let's get as many as we can." She said and continued to pedal, and for a while neither found anything, but then the female trainer spotted something on a tree branch. "Huh? Wow, it's a Burmy." She said after coming to a stop and saw a black creature covered in green leaves. Again she pulled out her Pokedex for some info.

"Burmy: the bagworm Pokemon. To protect itself from the cold wind Burmy uses leaves and branches to make a cloak around itself." She liked the info and the creature as a whole.

"Catching that little cutie will be a piece of cake." The new trainer said, and before she said anything Piplup went on the attack: thinking it's way would be better then wait for orders. "Couldn't wait, huh? Man." She said when she watched the BubbleBeam blow. The protective leaves were the first to fall from Burmy and then itself. "Wow, that's great I think we just caught ourselves a Pokemon.

"Piplup. Piplup. Piplup." The creature said and was able to get his flippers free from her celebrating grip. She wondered what was up even though her partner said it pretty simple: 'What are you doing? Don't celebrate now Catch him, not me.' She looked to what her friend was poking and saw that the bug Pokemon was gathering its leaves.

"Wow, look at Burmy go." She said in pure awe while standing up. She looked down and saw that Piplup was still raising a discussion, and that was what her pal was trying to say. "Oh, your right. I still have to catch it." She said and was able to find a ball from her bag. "Go, poke ball," She exclaims only to see that the bug bugged out. "Well, it looks like it's my turn to make one of those beginners mistakes, and it sure was a beauty." She said while sitting on her heels.

"Piplup." Piplup said while placing a flipper on her arm. She could tell that the bird was saying, 'Stay mellow.'

"Your right, I won't let myself get bummed out. I'm allowed to make mistakes just like you." She said after feeling a little bit better, but the same could not have said the same for her creature who was a little upset over how she worded that.

'Your not exactly getting the motivational speeches, are you.' The beginner level creature thought before hearing Dawn say:

"Together, let's climb Mount Success until we reach the tip-top." The penguin had to admit he like the sound of that. They both hear a rustle in the bushes, and turned to meet it. "Piplup, is something there?" She questioned the aware Pokemon. The two saw a tall fox creature walk out with a little pain on her face. "Whoa. What's that?" Dawn questioned and then pulled out dexter.

"Creature unknown: no data available data." The machine said back to her.

"An unknown Pokemon? Not exactly the best thing to go up against for a new Pokemon trainer, but…" She stalled to see if her partner was up for it, and after a nod she continued with, "Ok, take it from the top. Piplup use BubbleBeam." The attack went out of the beak, and right to the fox.

'Have to ignore the pain for now.' She thought and powered through the bubbles and gave the small bird a powerful kick going down.

"Oh man. Talk about power…and speed." The newbie said after she saw how effortlessly the canine took down the attack. She however was not so easily deterred. "All right, Piplup. Use Peck of that fox, now." She ordered and the bird followed: flying at Renamon with a glowing beak.

'Don't have time for this.' She thought and had her fists ignite with a powerful white flame. "Power Paw." She shouted and had her paw/fist to meet the beak. The result caused the innocent bike to tumble in a circle: causing some damage.

"Ah, my bike! It's all banged up." Dawn exclaimed after seeing all the dents.

"So much for breaking that tradition." The vixen muttered after seeing what she had done.

"Well, thanks a lot. I'm definitely gonna catch you after that." The girl before the canine said while staring at the ball. "Let's go Pokeball." She said and threw it. The sphere landed on her chest fur, which upset the Digimon, a red aura surrounded her, but nothing happened. "Hold on. If that didn't work then you must already belong to someone, I think." She said after catching her ball.

'I don't have time for this. I have to get to Ash.' Renamon thought and tried to get out of sight, but her body got damaged from the fall. 'Guess those trees must be close to some of the trees back on Earth.' She thought as she recalled that this pain was not equal, but similar when she fell by Mihiramon. The canine tried to flee, but was interrupted by a black snake, strange moth, very small Togemon-like creature.

"What are they?" Dawn questioned as the creatures circled around the canine.

"They're my Poke catching crew." A feline said as he stared at the unknown creature before him.

"Whoa. A talking Meowth." The trainer said in surprise and looked it up.

"Hey, your as smart as the other twerps." The furball said even though he did not see the anger in Renamon's eyes.

"Meowth: The scratch cat Pokemon. It sleeps a lot during the day time, and during the night time becomes active moving around its territory." The device said about the small white creature.

"And what that blabber-box won't tell ya is not only am I the cream of the Pokecrop, but I'm the king of all the cuties." He said to the trainer. Soon a human female came running out as a human male came walking behind her.

"Looks like we struck, Pokemon gold." The red haired one said in happiness when she saw the winded canine before them. She then saw the other female and said, "Little girl, you should play around with Pokeballs like that." The male knew, and could somehow tell that the unknown creature could kick their butts, but he decided to add what Jessie started.

"You might poke some Pokemon's eye out." He warned and the two non fighters agreed with him.

"There's no room in this forest for yet another thief." The red head said with a dull look in her eyes. "We've been after rare, and powerful Pokemon for so long we're trademarks." She added and then waited for the short haired one to add on.

"So thanks you your unwilling, but helpfulness you helped us find it." He said after a mental sigh, and with his eyes shut wondering if she was done glaring at them.

"Diamond Storm!" Renamon shouted at them while shooting off her main attack at them. Normally she would fear that they would not survive, but after what her partner put them through she knew they'd be fine.

"See? Only this creature would use that attack on the closest of friends." Jessie said with a faux smile and added with some determination, "So, let's return the favor." As Dawn was trying to figure out what was going on, Renamon had enough of what they were trying. The canine grabbed both the moth and the plant creature in her paws, and stomped on the snake with both.

"Stay put." She told them in a warning tone, which made all of them, even Jessie and James freeze into a sitting position. The Digi-damsel walked over to the bike and broke the pedal section with Power Paw, and then dragged it to the 'villains' "Together." She said in a warning tone, and just like that they did so. She used Power Pay to bend what was left of Dawn's bike around them.

"Hey, what are you doing to my bike!" The novice demanded as she watched the bending metal. The vixen creature ignored her, and secured them. She then walked a good distance away.

"Piplup, right?" The yellow one questioned the blue, and the blue nodded yes. "Good, shall we?" She offered while putting her arms across her chest.

"Uh…okay. Piplup use BubbleBeam." Dawn shouted to her partner while the canine added:

"Diamond Storm!" The attacks came together an inch before them: sending them flying and the bike pieces fall from the sky.

"That was a quick trip." The red one said with a bike handle in her hair.

"Jessie's right." James said without a bike part on him.

"We had a little look." The cat creature said with a bike tire around his neck.

"And now we're blasting off again." They all said as they flew off for the second time. Back on the surface Dawn and Piplup were dancing out of victory.

"Is there a Pokemon center near by?" The fox questioned the trainer to her left.

"I think there's one…wait you can talk?" Dawn said in surprise, now able to hear the creature that walked like a human.

"All the creatures here can speak, but I speak human because I am not from around here." She answered her and asked again, "Is there a center near." She nodded yes, and the three set off. When they entered the Digimon saw the pink haired white outfitted one that Ash spoke of.

"Yes, may I help you?" She questioned the new arrivals.

"Yes, is it possible for you to give me a check up." The canine questioned and got a gasp out of her. "I know: I can speak human, so can you or not." She asked feeling a little ticked off.

"Oh of course." She said and led the three into a different section of the small building. Renamon prayed that the pink haired nurse kept her hands below her chest fur, and after a little checking the nurse came up with an answer. "It seems that you have a few bruises on your elbows, shoulders, and knees. Other than that, your fine." She told the vixen.

'That's all, but it feels worse.' The Digimon thought and that was when her softer side got a thought in.

'Maybe it is from fear, worried that they went after, Ash.' The softer side thought which caused the logical side to speak out.

'No, Ash can handle them, even with just Aipom.' She was brought out of her debate when she heard Nurse Joy's question.

"How did you two meet?" The digital life form was about to answer, but the eager trainer cut her to the quick.

"We met when a group of bad guys came to get this Pokemon, and they went by…uh…" She stopped there since they did not say who they were.

"Team Rocket, and my partner has taken them on and won on several occasions, or so he told. He gave me a vacation until he started this, and then we were separated." Renamon said to them. "I have to go to him." She said and got off of the doctor table.

"Where are you going? You should stay and rest." The female doctor advised, but the canine was to the door, but was still able to answer her.

"I can't. I have a duty to my partner, and I intent to make good." The nurse understood as did the new girl which gave Dawn an idea.

"Hang on. I know this area pretty well. Mind if I track him with ya?" The blue haired girl questioned, wanting to help this talking fox find her partner. At first the vixen thought of using a Rika moment, and tell her off since she had Jeri's annoying optimism from before Leomon's slaughter, but she really could use the help.

"Very well. Let's go." She said and walked out the door with the human and the bird right behind her. Everything was going alright until Dawn saw the vid phones. "Can you hang on just a minute? I need to call my mom, and tell her how things are going." She questioned to the vixen.

"Make it fast." She answered back since she just wanted to find her partner as soon as possible, so they could start this journey together. The trainer rushed over to the phone and dialed up her mom.

"That's great. You made a good choice with Piplup. Smart and cute too." The mother said and saw that the Pokemon in question approved of those words. "So, have you been able to capture any other Pokemon yet?" The mother questioned, moving onto a new subject.

"I try, but so far, no luck." Her daughter answered back with her head hung in shame. The mother saw this and tried to cheer her up.

"Well, it takes a while dear until you get the hang of it, but once you do your going to have so much fun. Nothing more exciting than making new Pokemon friends." She said to her and saw Piplup puff out his chest - thinking she was referring to the water type.

"Piplup, chill out." Dawn said which got the bird's attention.

"Piplup piplup." The creature said while standing on the key board. She knew that he was bringing up the whole not catching the Burmy thing.

"Yeah, well you had something to do why we didn't catch us any Pokemon." She said back while pointing two accusing fingers at the penguin. Their argument began with the bird going with a basic attack. "Hey. Don't you peck at me or I'll peck right back." She threatened. Hearing the noise caused the family Glameow from the couch and over to the vid screen.

"You know I think those two were made for each other, don't you think?" The mother asked the gray furred cat which meowed an approval. Renamon saw them argue and walked over to them, and pulled them apart by having one of them in each of her hands.

"Will you two knock it off?" She questioned, but the two could tell that there was a hint of anger in the canine's voice so they nodded on instinct. She released them, and said to the two. "Come on. We have to find Ash." She said to them, but Dawn refused again.

"Can I please call Professor Rowin, just for a minute?" She questioned the dog. Renamon just let out a humph, and sat down on a nearby bench. "Thanks." She said and dialed in the right number.

"Just look at you two aren't you getting along?" The professor questioned once he saw the faces on the monitor and saw how banged up they were.

"Nah. We're both fine. We're just getting to know each other, that's all." She answered to the donator, and he got an agreeing statement from the water creature.

"Oh, so your journey's going well then?" He questioned even though he had his doubts over what she said was true. That one questioned caused the girl to speak of meeting the canine and the thieves.

"First, we ran into a lost fox Pokemon, ya know, the poor thing was being chased by bad guys for one reason or another." He listened to what she had to say and the term 'bad guys' caught his ear.

"Bad guys?" He questioned, wanting to know of more information.

"They're called Team Rocket. They were trying to steal Pokemon." She answered him which got him thinking of something a friend of his said to him. "So, I'm going to make sure that fox Pokemon's trainer. You know who ever it is worried sick." She added and all of them were oblivious to a happy smirk on the vixen.

'Yes, that does sound like him.' She thought and then listened to the rest.

"Hmm, I see then you can head to Jubilife City after that." Rowin said to the girl.

"Yeah, but you know what? Even if I don't get there in time for the next contest there'll be lots more I can wait." She said to him showing that she held some maturity, at least when it came to leading a dog back to her partner.

"Hmm, now that sound thinking. A great Pokemon trainer always puts Pokemon first above everything else, and that's just what your doing. Good luck, you two." He answers back to the new trainer and his former Pokemon.

"Thanks." They answer and hang up. With Renamon leading they make they're way back out of the Pokemon center.

"That was a very mature comment you said to Rowin." Renamon said, and the new trainer felt a little honored for hearing that, but then she heard, "Of course what you said earlier made it sound as though I was too weak to put up a fight, but I did: didn't I?" She questioned while looking over her shoulder making the new girl shiver under her gaze, a feeling that she hadn't felt since the first time she met Takato and Henry.

"No. Of course not. I'm sorry for phasing it like that." Dawn said back, not wanting to see when the canine was upset. She heard her answer, but just kept on walking. In another part of the forest they were in was her two friends.

"Hey, Aipom, do you see Team Rocket's balloon anywhere up there?" Ash questioned the chimp who was doing aerial reconnaissance on the tip of what the trainer thought to be the tallest tree in the area. The fellow tree climber gave him, 'Couldn't see anything' in standard monkey while shaking his head for good measure. "Oh man. When you want to find those guys they all disappear." He said and started to walk off. "I sure hope Renamon's safe Aipom." He said his concern to the purple primate who added, 'I'm worried too.' Back to him.

'Yeah, it'll be a real bummer not to stare into her blue eyes again.' A piece of Ash's mind thought to the rest, but for now only received a shake. He and Aipom thought it best to catch a breather before trying again.

"Huh? Hello? Is everything alright over there?" A familiar police woman asked while out for a drive on the country road in full uniform, but stopped when she saw a black haired youth and monkey Pokemon just sitting on the bend of a hill near the road. Ash looked over his shoulder, and saw that the voice matched a face that he had seen in almost every city.

"Huh? Hey, It's Jenny." The trainer said before getting up and Aipom went to his shoulder. "Slight hitch on my journey Officer Jenny. Team Rocket's in the area." He said to her, giving her a brief description of his problem.

"Hop in." She answered back while thumbing to her sidecar. He did so, even though he was reminded of the first time he road in a sidecar, but he got in just the same with Aipom sitting on his lap. "So, Team Rocket's in Sinnoh, huh?" Jenny questioned the boy. She may not have met any of them, but her family and friends sure did, and they spoke of how an Ash Ketchum stops them which made her feel pretty special for driving him to the local Professor.

"Yeah, and I got to find those crooks quick because they took Renamon away from me." He answered her truthfully.

"Ash, Sinnoh's a big place. Instead wandering around trying to find them all by yourself why don't you leave that to me, and I'll take you to Professor Rowin's lab where you can say hello." She said back to him, not even asking who Renamon was, but just kept on driving.

'I hate not to look for her, but I guess I have no choice.' The young Ketchum thought as they made the final stretch to the professor's lab.

"So, your Ash from Pallet Town? Professor Oak said a great deal about you. He sent your Aipom's Pokeball, and it just arrived." The white bearded one said to him while holding the traditional sphere before giving it to him.

"That's great, thanks Professor." The trainer said back while looking at his friend's carrying case. The head researcher of the building decided to fill in the veteran trainer on what has happened to his friend.

"I wouldn't worry too much about Renamon. I heard from one of my new trainers that this morning she protected a lost fox Pokemon from a strange group of thieves calling themselves: Team Rocket." He said and that got the trainer and his monkey's attention.

"Your kidding?" Ash question in surprise while thinking, 'Doubt it. If anything Renamon protected the new girl.' He then felt the pressure of Aipom on his shoulder.

"Aipom!" The monkey shouted, asking: 'Really' in Pokemon lingo. In that instant Ash ran over to where he believed to where the Professor kept his vid-monitor to call the local Pokemon center, which Rowin knew the number to.

"Dawn? I'm sorry, but she left the Pokemon center a just a little bit before you called." The Nurse Joy of the center said back after they asked for simple information.

"Did she say where she was going, Nurse Joy?" He questioned to the pink haired one before him.

"It wasn't her decision. A talking yellow Lucario creature said that she needed to find her partner, and Dawn was going to act as a guide to help find her partner." The nurse answered back to him, hoping that what was said would help him. He and Aipom ran off the nano-second they heard that. They were out the doors of the research facility, but Rowin stopped them.

"Wait. Where are you going?" He questioned since he believed waiting here would be more beneficial.

"To find Dawn. I know that there's a Pokemon center, right? So, that means she's got to be close by, too? Come on, Aipom, let's hit it." Ash responded and got a 'yes' from chimp, and the two were off.

'How is it that the trainers of today, can never stay still.' Rowin thought while watching them run off.

'I'm just glad that this Jenny didn't need for me to be in the room, on her cycle when I need help.' Ash thought while running not knowing that Renamon's captors were getting in touch with his past.

"Hmm, that's my families second summer cottage." James said after he and the others with their problem of the new trainer and of their boss, even though the human knew that the orange clad man had no idea that they existed. "If this is the second one than that means, this really IS the Sinnoh region, and that's why that girl had no idea who we were." He added, realizing what those vibes were when they ran into her.

"Of course she didn't know who we were: that fox booted us away before we could say our motto." Meowth said after looking away from the house and over to his male human friend.

"No, it's not just that. I got a strange vibe from her when we met her. Anyways the reason why we have a second summer home is because when ever the first one needed to be clean." The two ignored his reason why the girl didn't recognize them, and focused on the building before them.

"Great. We need cleaning: what's mine is your and what yours is mine - I always say." Jessie said to her teammate, and the cat also shouted in praise in his own way. They all entered the building and as the two members were saying something like, "Just think of what a headquarters this would make." As their Pokemon agreed with her James opened up the blinds and marveled at the view.

'Still as breath taking as I remember.' He thought as he stared at the forest view. He then walked around and saw a door to a room that he always visited. "Huh? There you are you rascals." He said after going into the room and seeing a box.

"Ooh, what's in there?" Jessie questioned as she and the others saw him sit before something.

"Something a lot older than me." The feline said and then they watched as he opened the container's lid.

"It's my very first bottle cap collection. I've had it ever since I was a toddling tot of two." He said to them and explained what he did with it to his face even though he knew that the others weren't too big on the face rubbing info. "WOW! I can't believe you've been hiding out here all this time." He said when he saw a familiar sphere.

"A Pokeball? Yours as well?" The girl of the team questioned.

"And how? The very Pokemon I used to play with when we came to Sinnoh. Come on out Carnivine!" He said to them before releasing it from its prison. "You see, Victreebel's not the only one who like to take a nip at my noggin." He explained while his old friend chewed on his head. The others wondered if that was a good thing, and after hearing that the others were hungry he decided to help with that.

"That's our Little James." Jessie began as he spoke to a worker friend of his over the phone.

"That guy can pull strings." Meowth added.

"Wobbuffet." The blue one added, saying: 'Yep, that's true.' Soon the spread that he asked for was made. The others watched as James and Cheeves worked on making the table, set up the food and then they ate.

"Your still the best Mr. Cheeves." James complimented as he ate since he thought it proper to compliment his old friend.

"Glad to be of service. By the way I took the liberty of bringing your whole family Master James." The cook said which got a straightened back out of the young master. Said male almost went blue in the face since hasn't forgotten what they pulled earlier, but then the bad news got worse. "Of course they were all thrilled. Your mother and father as well as Jessiebell will be taking the first flight tomorrow to see you here." He added to his friend.

"Bell here soon?" James asked with a shaking head, and didn't like the 'yes' answer he got from the cook. As Meowth and James felt like puking out of hearing the news Jessie was out of the loop: totally forgetting their first encounter with her. A little after enjoying leisure James decided to tell them straight out.

"I can't just stay here." He said to them, interrupting the Pokemon's video game play, and Jessie's magazine reading while laying on the couch. He heard the females complaint, so he went deeper, "If Jessiebell get her hands on me then Team Rocket is history."

"Now there's a nightmare. Oh, well, I guess we could back to our plan and become the super stars of Sinnoh." Jessie said to her friend, which he did feel better over what she said.

"I'll let the boss know we're back in the saddle." Meowth said and pressed a special com link button on the TV remote changing a video game screen to a live feed of their boss.

"Your boss-ness." The three said kneeling before the screen, and then told them how they arrived to Sinnoh just as they did for Hoenn, but was interrupted by James.

"Don't you mean Hoenn conquered us?" He questioned causing him to enter a Jessie headlock with muffled mouth. The talking Pokemon saw this and gave him a lie that they hope would be true.

"Thought your plans wouldn't buy me a cup of coffee, I've wanted to set up shop there. Do your best." Giovanni said to them, and a response from the red causing him to counter with, "That's what I'm afraid of." He then cut the feed allowing them to praise his words, but there was a slight problem. "Remind me who those three buffoons were, won't you?" He asked his old Persian friend which answered with a growling 'meow'. In truth he talked down to all of his workers, but all of his people were in the Kanto, and he forgets anyone that goes past Kanto boarders.

"Dawn, I believe…" The vixen started to say warning her of a ringing phone up ahead, but was interrupted.

"Don't worry Renamon, I know exactly where we're going." The trainer answered her. When they got across the street from the phone she heard the canine put her hand on top of the girls head and turned it, without killing her, in the direction of the ringing. "Oh, that phone's ringing." Dawn said and they crossed the vacant road to answer it.

"Hmm! I've been trying to reach you." Rowin said to her angrily which caught the human female off guard, but he continued, "Renamon's trainer is named Ash, and he was just here, but he just left. He's now on his way to try to catch up with you." The girl understood with a nod, and then they both hung up.

"No problem. All we have to do is retrace our steps and we'll run right into the guy. Come on let's go." Dawn said while walking in place and then walked over to the start of the route with the others right behind her.

'I could always smell where he is, but this girl is still new, she's going to need all the help she can get.' Renamon thought as she and the others stopped.

"I sure wish my bike wasn't a jigsaw puzzle." Dawn said trying to make the creature upset, but it didn't work.

"I needed to get rid of them easily, and the best way was to tie them up before attacking." She answered and then thought, 'Besides, destroying bikes is a tradition of Ash's and I didn't want to stop that tradition.' The two started walking while at the same time the veteran trainer, out of experience, was coming to them in the other direction.

"Ash." The trainer in question's old friend said as he stepped off a big rig that he was riding on which stopped for that purpose.

"Hey, Brock." The black haired youth said before jogging up to him.

"Great minds think alike." He said back when the trainer was about a foot away from him.

"Great to see you, but what are you doing here?" Ash questioned since he thought that the breeder was going back home.

"Either you two know each other, or you're too friendly Brock." A female driver with average street clothes said to the two with a southern twang.

"This is my old buddy Ash. He and I have been traveling together for a long time." He told her, and she decided to be a nice gal to the new guy before her.

"The name's Claudina, and incase you haven't noticed I'm the proud driver of this big rig." She said to him ending with a winked left eye.

"Hi. Nice to meet ya." He said back to her with a smile. Brock saw that smile, but decided to step right then and there.

"Yeah, Claudina and I are on the road. The road to happiness and true love." He said to him while going next to him and wrapped his left arm around his shoulder.

"Yeah, but in a truck?" The trainer questioned, wondering what his old friend was up to.

"Ash, it's a long and complicated journey when you want to become the very best." He started and added while poking his friend's right face cheek, "I was hitchhiking to Pewter City when we hooked up. It was fate!" 'Besides I know your luck, and your not getting this one.' He thought before releasing the trainer with a spin. "It's been great seeing you pal, and best of luck in everything you do." He said and then the three of them heard a ring, and it turned out to be the driver's cell phone: which she answered.

"Hi honey, I've been waiting to hear your sweet voice a`callin." The driver said into her phone, and that was what caused Brock to shift his attention to her.

"Honey?!" He shouted since he thought he really had found the one.

'Oh, great. This can only get worse before it gets better.' Ash thought as he too listened to her.

""Sure. I'll be right there just as soon as these 18 wheels of mine can carry me." She said in her phone then put it back in her pocket, and turned to the passenger that was staring at her. "I'm sorry for the interruption Brock, but that was my boyfriend on the horn, and I'm gonna have to high tail it and meet him quicker then a Volt Tackle." She said with a wink and added, "But I know y`all will be fine after all you got you're bud. I'll let you two mosie on along." She shut the door and started up the engine. "See ya later Brock, and thanks for the great lunch and dinner." She said through the window with a wave before driving off.

'Relatively bounced back Brock in: 3...2...1.' Ash thought since he knew how his friend acted when dumped while not trying to help people.

"All right Ash. A man's got to do what a man's got to do and these two men are gonna do it with or without a beautiful woman at their side." The breeder said with a shaking right fist to the heavens.

"Yeah. That's what I like to hear." The trainer said back to him, and that's when the former Gym Leader saw something amiss.

"But, hey, where's Pikachu, Ash?" He questioned, and that was when the trainer decided to tell him of what happened after they parted ways, or at least the main parts.

"Well, you see…" He began and told his traveling partner of his first encounter of the fox, their reunion, the boat trip, and the separation. He got the idea, and the older, in age, traveler was not surprised.

"That Team Rocket just won't quit will they?" He questioned as the two made their way through a forest area. Ash was looking at a small map that he got from Rowin's lab on his way out, and stuffed in his pocket.

"Here it is. There's a Pokemon Center up ahead where that girl took Renamon, so she can tell which way they went." Ash said after finding the icon he was looking for on the map. The mere mention of the nurse brought Brock into his delusions of grandeur.

"When it comes to Nurse Joy, leave it to me." He said and as the two traveled on land, the monkey stuck to swinging on tree branches and that was when it hit a bird creature, which was minding it's own business.

"Knock it off, Aipom. This is no time for you to be picking a fight." Ash said after seeing those two get into a fight. "Stop." He said, wanting to find Renamon as soon as possible.

"Hey, who's that Pokemon?" Brock questioned to the trainer. He may have seen several creatures on the way over, but his attention was on the driver.

"Starly - the starling Pokemon. Starly normally travels in a flock, but when alone it is hard to notice." Dexter said to them after Ash pulled it out, and after hearing what was said Ash got an idea.

"A normal flying type. All right." He said, and Brock saw that look in his eye, but decided to voice his opinion just the same.

"Maybe you should catch it." He said to the trainer as the Pallet Town person was putting away the Pokedex.

"I think so too. That way we can look for Renamon in the air." He said and got out a fresh Pokeball while jogging up a little. "Aipom, I want to capture that Starly, so I'll need your help." He said to the purple primate which agreed and leapt up. "Aipom, use Swift." He commanded and just like that several stars shot out with a swing of the fist tail, and all of them hit their mark, but it was not over yet.

"STARLEY!" The bird shouted which Ash could guess by the attack meant, 'Take this Banana Brain.' The three felt the attack, and Brock knew which class the attack that was.

"That's Whirlwind, and a powerful one too." He said and the battler took the sentence into consideration before giving the fellow climber a new order.

"Aipom hang in there, and use Focus Punch." Ash said and Aipom obeyed by channeling some power into the fist tail. "Aipom, Starly's coming in with a Quick Attack." He warned when he saw the monkey starting to loose ground because of the wind.

"Starly!" The bird hummed while coming in. 'Here I come.' Is what it translated to. The attack hit it's mark, but as soon as the monkey recovered another attack was struck.

"Now Starly's using Wing Attack." The breeder warned, which gave Ash an idea for another counter move.

"I know you can do it, Aipom." Ash said, and that was all Aipom needed to hear. The monkey leapt up, and hit the target with the Focus Punch.

"Aipom!" She shouted while doing the attack which was meant, 'Try this out.'

"Starly!" The bird answered back which meant the traditional 'Ow.'

"That's more like it." Brock said, realizing how much, even in this short time, watching his friend brawl still made him smile.

"Go, Pokeball!" The trainer announced and threw the ball which hit the bird on the head. Just like all wild creature Starly was pulled in after turning red, and the ball landed on the ground with a blinking red light. After four blinks it stopped moving. "Awesome, we did it Aipom! All right, I caught a Starly." He shouted in praise, but quickly stifled it which drew the breeders attention to the hat wearer.

"What's wrong?" Brock questioned since he knew the trainer celebrated a bit longer than that.

"You know Brock I was hoping that the first Pokemon I caught in the Sinnoh region, Renamon would be here with me." He said in a disappointed tone. He felt bad that she didn't see it not saying his old friend wasn't a good choice, but still he just felt better if his main traveling creature was there with him.

"I know, but don't forget the reason why you caught Starly was to help find Renamon." Brock said to him with a reassuring hand on Ketchum's left shoulder, and that did make him feel better.

"You're right. Starly come on out." He said and threw the new creature into the air. The bird heard through the ball what was going on and flew off in a hurry, and after a few moments of searching the flyer stayed in one spot. "Brock did you hear that?" The hero said after the two of them stopped chasing it.

"It sounds like Starly spotted something." The breeder said and that's when the two looked up and saw lightning.

"Check it out." Ash said in disbelief as his monkey friend climbed onto his head.

"That lightning might be caused by one of Team Rocket's machines going haywire." Brock warned since he knew they usually bought inferior materials.

"Just hang on Renamon, reinforcements are on the way." Ash said after hearing what his friend had to say. The two then followed the blasts to the source.

"Now, go Pokeball." A new player said and threw a sphere at a flyer, but it had no effect, so he caught the falling ball with an emotionless face.

"Starly, over here." Ash said since he wanted to see her first he bolted before them. The bird came to him and landed on his left shoulder. After the flyer landed they both saw a purple haired kid, and Ash was already getting bad vibes off of him, but he remained calm.

"I'll thank you and your Starly to stay out of my way." He said harshly, and being the nice guy Ash decided to explain it to this guy what he was doing here.

"I didn't know anybody, but us was out here, really." Ash said and heard Brock and Aipom coming to them.

"It must have been the Elekid that was giving us that light show." Brock said, disappointed of not meeting the creature yet.

"Anyway, I've got a question for ya. You haven't seen a girl with a fox Pokemon around, have ya?" He asked, for some reason he did not trust this guy, so he didn't give him Renamon's features.

"No. You really think Starly's good enough." The new one said and that got Ash's attention. "I watched you catch it. Don't you think your better off catching the best one you can." He added when he saw their confusion.

"You can tell which one's the strongest?" He questioned back since someone complaining about a Pokemon's strength without giving them a chance got on his nerves.

"Of course. Look." He said to the monkey holder before throwing up three Pokeball, all holding Starly which gave Ash a surprised look on his face. "You must know you can scan the Pokemon you catch with your Pokedex to see what moves they can use, and that's just what I do. I figure if you do that from the beginning it saves you a whole bunch of grief in the long run." He informed while doing just that with his Dex. "K, let's check out: Aerial Ace, and the big winner is…" He said before recalling three of them, putting one away, and stared at the two remaining. "Take a hike I don't need you." He said as he released them.

"That's sure a weird way to treat Pokemon." Ash stated while walking up to the new guy which was more than ready to explain himself.

"Hey. The only attacks those two knew was Tackle attack and Sand Attack, so they wouldn't be much use anyway." He said back to the other trainer, and that got on Ash's nerve even more.

"Know what I think, any Pokemon can be strong if you train `em." Ash said back, knowing that his method was right. The new guy only sported a smirk which got Ash riled up even more, "What are you laughing at?" He questioned while trying to keep his anger in check.

"You'll find out. So, want a battle." The guy said, and those were the best words to say for the other trainer to relieve some of the anger he was feeling.

"Sure, let's do it." Ketchum commented back.

"We'll use three Pokemon." He said calmly which caught Ash off guard. "Three on three is the best way to see what type of Pokemon a trainer's good at working with, and what kind of balance they've got." He explained to the Pallet Town citizen.

"I know that, but I've only got two." Ash said back to him, and the monkey on the ground and the bird on his shoulder sounded off.

"You've got to be kidding! Talk about pathetic! Elekid, let's get going." The guy said and began to walk off.

"Man, I wish Renamon was here." Ash said when he saw that the guy was a safe distance away to say her name. All of a sudden his eyes went solid blue and he saw something different - an opening with a Team Rocket bot and Renamon fighting it.

"Ash, are you alright?" Brock questioned as he watched the young Ketchum stare out into space.

"I'm alright, Renamon is this way." Ash warned, and ran off in the direction his vision gave to him. The 'smart' trainer saw that they were heading off in a different direction.

"Where are they going?" He questioned and followed a good distance after them. 'Probably going after another lame Pokemon.' He thought. While back with Renamon: she, Dawn, and Piplup were having another run-in with Team Rocket only with them sporting an orange bug based robot.

"You let her go now!" Dawn shouted after her Piplup tried to stop one arm, but was unable to stop them, and they caught the canine with a 'little' squeeze. The three were not paying attention to her since they were too wrapped up over their win not knowing that they will soon meet their worse nightmare.


	5. Chapter 5

Reunion of friends and rivals revealed

As Ash and Brock ran over to the clearing he saw earlier Dawn's Piplup tried using a Bubblebeam on the orange machine, but they didn't do a thing. "Except for the entertainment factor your wasting water." James pointed out, hoping that would shoo them away, but instead the penguin charged on the ground.

"Piplup, wait." The new trainer said before chasing after her partner; trying to stop the water class.

"Oh, please, just like a twerp." Jessie shouted as she saw the girl trying to save her creature when she knew that there would be a few that would let their creature take care of themselves. Piplup leapt up to the machine, but was soon slammed by one of the arms which sent it back down to the ground.

"Piplup." The girl said cautiously before gently putting it back on its feet. The penguin tried to carry on the fight, but instead took a knee. "Piplup, no." She ordered when she saw her water class still wanted to fight.

"A wimp with wings." The feline in the machine said while feeling protected in the vessel. There was a shout of defiance, but he didn't care.

"I think it's time for some flying lessons." The red head of the team said before pressing down on the controls which caused the arms to attack the two on the ground. "Now hold still while I introduce you two twerp travelers to the moon." She added as she watched their plight.

"Aipom - swift, and Starley - whirlwind." A voice shouted out and the creatures in question did as he asked: knocking away the arms, and forcing the bot back one step. The owner of the voice and his friend came out of the shadows and saw what was going on. "Renamon." Ash shouted once he saw her.

"Ash, it's you." She said back to him, trying to handle the squeeze play. The other three saw him as well, and didn't like it.

"Look it's the old twerp." The three said as one.

"I know what he wants." Jessie said to the others.

"We need to tell him that fox face is under new management." The cat said and pushed down on his controls which caused one hand to come down at him. The two black tendrils that made up the machines fingers extended and one of them slammed his back - hard. Dawn could only gasp in shock while the canine shouted his name with fear in her eyes.

"Ash." Brock shouted while running to his old friend. His two Pokemon joined him with concern on their faces, and they all watch him get back to his feet.

"Aw, no you don't." Ash said and charged at them, but was halted by the same two fingers, but this time he was able to dodge them with relative ease.

"Ash, don't do anything stupid." Brock informed as he watch the Pallet Town person dodge.

"They got Renamon." He answered back almost as if saying, 'that's reason enough to do this'. His three trademark thugs enjoyed being on the winning side for once against him.

"There's no doubt about it - helpless twerps are my favorite twerps." Jessie said not believing that they were about to put him in his place.

'She does realize that he will kick our butts eventually.' James thought, but knew that she wouldn't accept that so he said to her. "That must mean we win." The mouth on their cat spoke up next.

"Time for Team Rocket's success." Meowth said to them.

"Alert the press." The two humans said together with their fists raised high. James activated a platform ability in the cockpit so they had a better view.

"This IS your lucky day after all." Jessie said down to him, and added, "After all you all get to hear our new Team Rocket motto." He and Brock groaned after hearing that.

"Do we hafta?" Ash questioned even though he knew that they often did. 'What can I do to stall?' He thought and then remembered that he still had a souvenir when they visited that castle. 'Those might help here.' He thought before digging them out. "Sorry, I wasn't listening, but then again I didn't come hear to listen to you three I came to get Renamon." Ash said and charged at the robot while sporting two new gloves.

"We left them speechless again." Meowth said in praise, not really listening to Ash's comment.

"Encore time." James said and pressed a button on a remote which caused a tendril to attack Ash, but he jumped before the attack, bounced off a tree, and landed on one of their arms. The three were shocked at his skill level even though the male human knew that this robot couldn't handle Ash's style.

"I'm coming Renamon." The hat wearing trainer said while crawling on the arm to get to her. As he climbed the three saw that he had a familiar fire in his eyes.

"Oh, he's got that look in his eyes." The cat said with fear coming down his spine. The female was getting angry that the boy was going to stop them again.

"Jeeze, James, can't you do anything right." She shouted in anger as the arms continued to miss him. "Give me that." She ordered and snatched the remote from him and tried to hit him closer.

"Man, these are a pain." Ash said and after getting to a red hinge on the bot's arm and stood there. He then closed his eyes and was somehow able to fire four aura blasts at the robot's arms - three to the right side and one below him. 'There, that's better.' He thought and went back to climbing.

'Ash, did that?' Renamon thought in pure shock before seeing a shadow beside her. She saw that it was Ash, and he was smiling at her.

"This was a wild first day, huh?" He said to her, and she answered with a nod. While Ash tried to pry open the fingers the three thugs were shocked over what he had done; so much so that they didn't even think of using the arm he was just on. "Let me try something." He said to her before focusing an aura around his right fist, and as soon as it made contact the finger was no more.

"Thank you, Ash." She said to him while standing on the ball that held her. The trainer was grateful that she was uninjured, but he looked at the three others and knew that they wouldn't stay like that for long.

"Now, let's show those three what your made of." He said to her, and she looked at the three thugs down on the platform.

"I have no problem with that." She answered him, and that was when the device that she gave to him activated. The shine in his pocket became evident to the boy in question.

"Why is this glowing?" He questioned after pulling it out of his pocket and looking at it. She smiled at his innocent expression, and was actually excited about digivolving for once.

"Just watch." She issued to him before letting the power take her over. "Renamon digivolve to…Kyubimon." She announced after being consumed in a light, and when it was over a four legged canine stood in her place.

"Wow! Kyubimon!" Ash said to her, and she nodded, enjoying his happiness to this. "Let's see what you can do." He challenged to her, and when they saw that the three were still stunned over what happened to their robot the vixen went for it.

"Dragon Wheel!" She announced before leaping off the arm and a grand blue dragon emerged from a spinning canine and the blue beast went through the robots stomach area.

"Get down!" Brock ordered once he saw the attack go through and the electrical build up that followed. He kissed the dirt first followed by the other four. The robot exploded causing them to fly and arg0ue while Ash was stuck falling.

"This may leave a bruise." Ash said since he had no way around this fall. As Kyubimon gently fell to earth she saw her partner falling in the wreckage.

"ASH!" She shouted before igniting her tail tips to get to Ash, and stayed on top of her partner. When the sound of raining steel was done the five got to their feet and stared at the wreckage.

"Renamon! Hey Ash!" Brock shouted to the pile, having a gut feeling that the trainer wouldn't be done in by scrap iron.

"Renamon?" Dawn questioned with fear as she looked at what's left of the machine. The wreckage began to move, and not too soon after that the big dog that they saw earlier stood there while looking down at something. Her partner steadily came to and looked at her partner's face before sitting up.

"Kyubimon, your okay." He shouted in praise before wrapping his arms around her neck. 'I know that she used herself as a shield, and I am grateful of that; I just hope I can return the favor.' He thought before seeing through her white fur that the purple monkey has come to see them.

"Aipom." The three handed animal said which she knew meant 'Hi, again.'

"It is good to see you again, Aipom." The four legged canine said to the monkey while walking out of the debris with Ketchum behind her. When they got out a brown and white bird landed in front of them.

"Starley." The flyer said which she knew meant 'Hello.' The vixen glanced up at her friend for an answer.

"Right you haven't met yet." The trainer said after realizing that she was away when this captured happened. "I'd like you to meet Starley who was my very first Pokemon buddy from Sinnoh, and who helped me find you." He explained to her while giving her half truth for the last part.

"Well then, hello little one." The tall canine said to the bird who didn't seem to be afraid of being by a taller creature. She then heard the two humans walk over to them.

"Renamon, we did it." Dawn said to the fox which made it sound like she did the work against Team Rocket's machine. The partner of the protective Digimon decided to see about this latest female.

"You must be the one that's been hanging out with my partner?" Ash questioned to her, but added, "Anyways my name is Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town and it is really nice to meet you." The former gym leader saw and heard Ash's words and decided to step in.

"Hi, I'm Brock." He said while sliding to the girl's right side. She liked the kindness of both men.

"Hi guys. My name is Dawn and this is my partner - Piplup." The stocking cap girl said while gesturing to the small bird before her. Ash heard it say it's name, and decided to do what he often did when meeting a Pokemon.

"So, that's a Piplup, huh?" He questioned while getting out his Pokedex.

"Piplup, the penguin Pokemon, It's very proud and thick dome protects it from the cold." The red device said to him. Ash put it away, and saw the injuries on the bird which caused him to worry.

"I sure hope your Piplup is okay after that." He said with a look of worry on his face. Dawn on the other hand shrugged off the older trainers worry without a second thought.

"Thanks, but Piplup's fine." She said to the hat wearing youth. "You tell him Piplup." She said to her pal.

"Piplup!" The penguin said while puffing out it's chest and putting it's fins to the waist.

"Wow. Your sure one tough Pokemon." Ash said to the creature since to him any Pokemon that defended his pals were okay in his book. The blue skinned one liked the props, but all of a sudden the little bird collapsed back first.

"Aah, Piplup, no." Dawn said in shock after seeing her starter fall down. This caused the unofficial hero of this world to also grow worried. The breeder was there as well, but he was able to keep his head in the game.

"Obviously something's wrong: big time." Brock said before setting his backpack to the side, and checked on the down Pokemon. "I'll do everything I can to help." He assured the new trainer, and got to work by spraying medicine on the water creature.

'I had a feeling that Brock wouldn't leave home without Pokemon supplies.' Ash thought as he watched the breeder in action.

"It's important for any trainer to always know the condition of their Pokemon." He informed the girl who was standing in front of him with a look of pure terror as she saw her starter in his arms.

"I'm sorry, Piplup." She said to the creature after sitting down on her heals. In truth the creature knew that, just like it, was still learning what to do and when, so the penguin waved it off with a functioning flipper.

"Now, let's take a look at Renamon." The former rock gym leader said as he looked at the bigger Ninetales-like creature standing beside Ash.

"Much appreciated, but I'll survive." She said back to him. After hearing that this one was a skirt chaser, much like most men that met her partner's mother, she didn't trust him anywhere near hear or any of her forms.

"Besides you two, in this form she also goes by Kyubimon." Ash informed them since he figured that they deserved to know that much at least. After making sure Piplup was up to speed the three plus fox headed back on the path. Eventually the team came across a phone booth complete with ringing phone.

"Hello?" Ash said hesitantly after picking up the phone, and to his relief it was Professor Rowin. Since it was not all that big the digital fox thought it best to wait outside the stone booth. Cutting to the quick the trainer said what needed to be said - that he met up with Dawn and that he had made contact with his friend.

"Well, well, that's excellent. I can't tell you how happy I am for you. Everything worked out just perfectly." Rowin started to say to the trainer after hearing all of the information.

"Thanks professor." The female human said to her creature donator. She believed that she did a fine job of reuniting the duo.

"Of course." He said to her with a head nod and the added, "By the way Ash I just received a package for you from your mother." This statement confused the boy greatly since he did not know that she would do such a thing.

"From my mom?" Ash questioned and Kyubimon, who was listening in on the whole thing heard the surprise in her friend's voice.

'I think I know what it might be.' The vixen thought since she did take a stroll around his house while he slept and saw the red head working on something in their attic, but left before she could tell that she was being watched.

"Thanks for the heads-up, Professor Rowin." Ash said to the mustached man before gently hanging up the phone. The three then reconnected to the canine and they all walked over to his lab, some wondering what the package might be. Unknown to them as they were walking another was checking out what was left of the robot.

'Whoever did this must have been powerful.' The mystery trainer thought as he saw the wreckage, and then the two, he and Elekid, headed over to a place where all trainers go - a laboratory.

"I do have a question Ash." Kyubimon said to the trainer, and added, "How did you know that I was in danger?" He thought of how to answer that, but he recalled telling her of what went down in Cameron Palace, and the Tree of Beginnings, so he knew that she would understand.

"These are the gloves I told you about, Sir Aaron's gloves." He said to her and then added, "These help focus my aura into sphere mode." She gave him a nod.

'Maybe with my help, he won't need those gloves in controlling aura.' The digital dog thought to herself, but after seeing that all but his gloves were damaged she decided to help him out. The Digimon bit down on the back of his shirt, and tossed him over her head and onto her back.

"Kyubimon, what is all this?" Ash questioned to her since he was really not expecting such a move from her.

"You seemed tired, so I'm giving you a lift." She answered him with a gentle look in her eye. Dawn saw what went down, and would have asked for a lift, but she was listening to the former gym leader on his skills and whatnot.

"Wow, Brock! That's so cool that you're a breeder!" She exclaimed to the taller man after hearing what he is capable of and added, "I know this gotta be the first I met a real Pokemon breeder, ever!" He did like the praise since Ash and three others that he has hung out with know what he is capable of.

"Really? Well, as soon as we get back to the lab I'll make some special Pokemon that's perfect for water types." Brock said with his right hand in his hair, out of embarrassment.

"You're a lucky Pokemon, Piplup." The female said after her creature gave praise of getting food just for its class. "Huh?" Dawn questioned after hearing a horn of sorts before them. Coming at them was a white sidecar style motorcycle which had a familiar rider.

"I heard the news." The police person behind the controls said while coming at the travelers. Ash saw that it was the same female he met up with Aipom, and was glad to see her.

"Hey, Jenny." He shouted to her not noticing the cautious gleam in his friend's eyes. The female officer of the law stopped right before them, and carried a conversation of the new comers.

"That's so great, but…" Jenny started and then looked around for a certain creature, "Where's Renamon?" She added after hearing that the one that Ash was looking for was humanoid in appearance, but saw no one of that appearance.

"She's right here." The Pallet Town protector started while gesturing to the grand beast he was riding. "This is her evolved form - Kyubimon." He informed her, and that was when she understood enough.

"I was going to ask how she was, but if she has the strength to evolve and carry you then she must be alright." She said back to him while looking at the ribbon wearing creature.

"She is, and thanks again for your help." He said to her since he was grateful for any kind of assistance when it came to the safety of his friends. He glanced at his old friend and saw that for some reason or another became heart themed. 'Here we go, another moment of Brock hitting on a Jenny.' He thought and got ready for the crazy corniness.

"AND YOUR BEUTY!" The trainer in question shouted before grabbing the officer's white gloved hands into his. "Your thoughtfulness knows no bounds. Thanks for helping my friend, Ash, is his hour of need." He said to her adding the other male's name since he believed that Ash had an easy time for females to fall for him that if he said that he was friend's with the hero that he would get some form of attention.

"Sure…" She said a bit strained since she had never had ANYONE come onto her THIS strongly before. The female of the trio and her starter just stared in confusion over what was happening while Ash waited for something to happen like Jenny kicking the snot out of him for harassing a police officer, or something.

"And now I'm asking you to help me out with my hour of need." He continued to speak to her and soon added, "Cause I need you." As soon as he said that she really got nervous wandering if this was the same stalker that the Jenny's spoke of over the phone and blogged about.

"Ash, what's wrong with Brock?" Dawn questioned since she had never seen him in action or have been filled in on what he does to a nurse or officer, let alone ANY female.

"Nothin, not for him." He informed her with a nervous smile since this is probably what put May on guard when they traveled together.

"Should I try to stop this?" The fox questioned while setting free one of her tails and set it on fire once it was about her partner. The young Ketchum saw this and at first thought that it was funny, but he still needed to see what his mom brought him.

"It's tempting, but not yet." He requested to her with a wave of the hand.

"Fine. Spoil my fun." She muttered to where only he could hear before thumping his head affectionately with her free tail before placing it back. She then walked over to the dreamer, so her friend could stop this his way.

"I hate to interrupt, but you still need to make that food for Piplup." The hat wearing boy said while able to pry their hands away from each other.

"Hey, what are you doing? I was just going to…" The gym leader of old said, but stopped after he saw the ticked look at Kyubimon and saw that she was bearing her fangs. 'Right like he said, I have to go my beloved." He said before running away before the other three.

'We better follow him.' The vixen thought before running after him. The new duo saw that there friends were already way ahead of them.

"Huh?" The female said and added, "Hey, wait up."

"Piplup, pip." The penguin said as well which meant 'Yeah, wait for us.' As the last of the trio left the police woman was about to leave when she realized something…

'That must be the person that the other Jenny's have been talking about.' She thought when she remembered the blog of a black haired youth that had potential of helping them with any wrong doing. The team got at the lab pretty quickly, and after getting inside Ash saw a box addressed to himself.

"Wow! Check out the new clothes!" He shouted out after opening the box and taking out the shirt. The other two were also happy to see the new clothes.

"Truly impressive." Kyubimon said while looking inside as well.

"She even put a new backpack in there, too." Brock informed after spotting something green with a sideways Pokeball logo. The young one liked what he was seeing, and he knew what to do next.

"Give me a minute guys." He said to them and then added, "Rowin, where is your bathroom?" The elderly man gestured to where it was and he headed off in that direction, and once inside he got into a stall and treated it as a changing room.

'Delia's eye for fashion rivals Rumiko's fashion sense.' The canine thought since she could picture the model choosing such a match for a male. Back in the bathroom Ash saw something interesting while putting on his new shirt.

'I can't believe my gloves survived the explosion of Team Rocket's latest robot.' He thought as he looked at the aura gloves and saw that they were perfectly fine. He stuffed them in his new bag, and came out. He could tell that they all liked his new look; he was about ready to leave, but there was one last thing that he needed to do - call his mom.

"I'm thrilled! Such a handsome young man." The mother of the fox trainer said once she saw her boy in his new look, and liked what she saw.

"That's really nice of you mom." Ash said back to his mother, grateful that she was a great seamstress since she did repair his jacket that he wore when he first met Renamon.

"I wanted to give them to you while you were here, but you flew out of the house in such a rush." She told him, and that brought his confidence down a bit since he did not mean to do that.

"Sorry about that, mom." He started to say to her, and added, "But everything is going great here in the Sinnoh region, and I can't tell you how psyched I am." He gave her a thumbs up in the middle of his comment.

"Well, I can see that. You did call Professor Oak, and tell him Renamon is safe, right?" She said and informed her son. The woman saw that the fox, in the background, had an altered form, but she could tell that it was the same vixen as before. "I'll let you call him." She said to him gently after seeing the surprised look on her boy's face and then hung up the phone. He then quickly dialed in the number, and was grateful that he answered it.

"I appreciate you letting me know the good news, young man." Oak said while sitting at his lab happy to hear of the two reuniting. The three were there along with Kyubimon to the right of them.

"And this is Dawn. She hung out with Renamon after we were separated, and this is Professor Oak." The Ketchum kid informed and introduced the two since they did not have an Oak fan-boy with them this time.

"It's a real honor to meet you, sir." She said with a simple bow. The man on the screen liked how she was so polite to others that she had never officially met.

"And it is a pleasure to meet you - a brand new trainer." He said to her since that was the deal with the last girl that hung out with Ash.

"Right." She said, agreeing with what he said and added, "I…hope you don't mind…y-you love Pokemon Poetry, don't you?" She questioned to the man on the monitor, believing that what she said was his main field which caused the other three to be a little freaked out. Freaked out to find out that this one did that job for laughs, and not what he preferred to do.

"Yes! I do!" He brightened up, happy to meet a fan of his past time.

"Awesome!" Dawn exclaimed before turning toward the other trainer and adding, "Does that mean you know ALL the Pokemon Poets." He looked back at her, and decided to clear this minor confusion up.

"You don't get it. He's a real professor just like Professor Rowin." Ash said to her, but she was still not getting it as she countered with.

"But how come I always see him on TV reading poems?" This time the lad had no idea to counter such a question, so he got a little nervous.

"How come, well…" He started to say, but didn't know how to finish; luckily the Sinnoh professor saw his plight and decided to save him.

"Say, perhaps the good professor and I should have a little discussion." Rowin said while walking over to the kids with a smile on his face. He smiled because he kind of liked how Ash was sweating at such an easy question.

"Well, well, professor. Hey, Ash, may I speak with him for a moment?" Oak said and questioned when he saw one of his old friend approach the screen.

"Sure." The trainer answered and he along with the others walked off, allowing the two white coated gents to talk amongst themselves.

"Perhaps you can spend a little less time reading Pokemon Poetry on TV and a little more time doing your Pokemon research, eh Samuel?" Rowin suggested after walking closer to the screen.

"Right, I'll do that." He informed with an embarrassed expression and his left hand on the back of his head. The trainers listened in while walking to the exit, and was happy of what they heard.

"Those two must go way back." Brock suggested since his father often spoke to other gym leaders such as Blain or Sabrina's father in a similar way when he was on the phone.

"Guess so." The kind hearted trainer said since he knew it was great to make friends as well as do good on one's journey.

"So, what are you two doing here anyway?" Dawn questioned the two men of their action since they never told her themselves. They both knew that she had a right to know, so Ash filled her in first.

"Well, I came here so I could compete in the Sinnoh League and win." As he said that Brock pulled out a booklet from his vest, which he got at a truck stop a ways back when he was with Claudina, and looked at a map.

"Okay, it looks the closest gym to Sandgem Town is in Oreburgh City." Brock confirmed while looking in the book. "Jubilife City is right on the way." He added once he saw the challenger of gym's attention.

"That's awesome! Can I go too?" The new girl questioned in an excited tone of voice. This outburst caused the other three to stare at her in slight surprise. She saw this and decided to fill them in. "I want to be the number one Contest Coordinator and the first contest I want to compete in is in Jubilife City." She informed them, which cleared things up greatly for them.

"That's great." Ash said to her and quickly added, "Come along. When it comes to travelin the more the merrier I always say." This development was something the vixen really did not approve of this, but since her original team started with three she guessed that she could tolerate this upbeat girl.

"If Ash says that it's okay then it's okay by me." The four legged one said since she did trust her friends judgment.

"Brock, what do you think?" Ketchum questioned to the taller male since he had a feeling the breeder was going to come with for learning more stuff on breeding…and girls.

"Of course, it would be a lot of fun." He answered back to his old friend. The three Pokemon, who were released as soon as they came inside have become fast friends, came over to the three humans, wondering what was next for them.

"It looks like everybody agrees." Ash proclaimed when he saw the three stop in front of them.

"Piplup." The penguin said to the boy which meant, "We do." Dawn glanced over at the tall canine and knew what to say next.

"And I get to spend some more time with Kyubimon." The girl said to the fox and petted her roughly for a moment.

"Oh swell." The canine answered back after enduring the rough pet job. Ash caught onto her sarcasm, and decided to giver her some advice.

"Be nice." He whispered to her, which he got a slow nod from his comment. He had a feeling meant that she would do it, but wouldn't like it. When that decision was made the two of the three called back their three creatures back into their Pokeballs. "K, we're all set. Let's Go!" Ash said to the two since he didn't want to waist a second of time to start this adventure.

"Hold on, aren't you going to put Kyubimon in a Pokeball, too." The new trainer questioned him since she saw the vixen still standing tall beside the boy.

"Nah, I have a feeling that she would hate that. This canine prefers to be walking by my side." He informed her, and added, "Besides, she's not even a Pokemon. She is what's called a Digimon: Digital Monster." He saw her staring at the two of them in complete wonder.

"Wow, that's so amazing." She said meaning both the leaving out and the fact that she wasn't a Pokemon. Rowin, once done with Oak, heard what was said and decided to step in.

"You'll learn that there are as many Pokemon personalities as there are Pokemon." The Professor said and even though he heard that the canine was not a Pokemon he decided to use that word would make better since to Dawn.

"We better get going now. Thanks for everything you have done for us Professor." Ash said to the oldest of the four.

"Of course." He answered back and escorted them to the exit where as soon as the doors opened a familiar, to Ash and Brock, purple haired trainer was waiting on a tree just near the doors. "Yes, who are you?" Rowin questioned since he did not really like the vibes coming from this trainer.

"The name's Paul, and from the looks of things you must be Professor Rowin." The new comer said his name and guessed of the oldest one. "I'm waiting for him." He informed the four of his purpose.

"For me?" Ash questioned to this new trainer since the last time they met he was searching the woods for creatures, and that was it.

"You have three Pokemon now. Wanna battle?" The boy said and questioned to the older trainer with confidence in his voice since he believed he saw fear in the hat wearer's eyes. Ash was, for the first time, about to object until he saw Kyubimon bear her fangs at the new guy.

"Sure, I'm ready. I'm gonna be Pokemon Master, and the way to do that is to beat challengers like you." Ash informed the newbie trainer.

"That's right." The canine agreed with her partner, but she had another reason of doing this. There was something familiar, but different about his eyes. Rowin knew that they were going to need an immediate location, so he spoke aloud to all.

"Then off to my back garden." He said and in silence the group headed there. When they got there: Rowin and Dawn were behind, but diagonal to Brock while Ash/Kyubimon, and Paul were a good distance away from one another.

"I'll be the referee." The rock class gym leader of old said to them since he often did such a job at other times.

"This is great. I've never seen a Pokemon battle before." Dawn said after placing hers and Ash's pack, which he gave to her on the way over, down beside her, and looked at her friends.

"Well, your seeing one now. So, hold onto your hat." Ash said to her and that brought a broken smile to the fox creature.

'Sounds like something Takato might say, but Ash has better qualities' Kyubimon thought while sitting to the trainer's right side.

'Over confident. I'll be more then happy to crush that.' Paul thought with a muffled chuckle since he has dealt with a couple like him before. Ash heard the chuckle and knew that he was already going to hate this guy.

"What's so funny, Paul?" He questioned with challenge in his tone.

"Just that you talk like such a little kid." He confessed to the senior trainer.

"Oh yeah." Ketchum countered since according to his eyes the fool before him was no older then Dawn.

"Yeah. Okay, like I said before this is going to be a three on three battle with no substitution, and the one with two wins is the winner, got it?" Paul said while questioning if he had spoken to quickly for this 'kid' to keep up.

"I've got it." Ash answered and added after selecting just the ball to start off with, "So, Starley, I choose you!" After throwing the ball the creature in question emerged.

"Starley." The bird announced, and by the way his friend was smiling he could only assume meant 'I'm ready'. Paul saw the choice and decided to match it with his superior.

"Now Starley, stand by for battle. I choose you." Paul said and threw his flyer into the fray.

'Using the same Pokemon, weird.' Brock questioned to himself as he saw the choices, but he also saw that this was the one that won out of three choices.

"K, Ash, I'll let you go first." Paul said, wondering what he had in store for his bird.

"Alright. Starley, use Quick Attack." The older trainer shouted and saw that his new friend followed his request.

"Starley." The bird announced which meant, 'You got it.' The bird beamed straight at his kinsman. The attack did little damage since the user could see the opponent was only grazed.

"It's a hit.' Dawn announced in praise of her friend's Pokemon speed. Rowin saw the attack too, but he saw a deeper problem.

"True, but it doesn't look like it did much damage." He said back to her which caused her to look at him in confusion. "I think Paul is just testing Ash's Starley's attack power." He explained to her since he had a feeling she didn't under stand what he said earlier, but she still didn't get it.

"Starley, Aerial Ace." Paul said while his creature was falling. After getting the order the bird recovered and preformed the attack stated. The attack nailed Ash's Starley right on the chest. Ketchum's bird recovered and flew at the other, without a second thought.

"Starley, Wing Attack, go." Ketchum said to his partner. The flyer coursed some energy into the wings, but before the power was ready Paul was ready with a counter attack.

"Quick, Double Team." The bird did such a move and was able to create three duplicates. This confused Ash's bird since it did not know which to hit. Ketchum on the other hand saw the genuine one and decided to deal with it.

"The real one's in the back! Dodge it now." Ash said, wanting to get his flyer out of there.

"Aerial Ace." Paul shouted since he was ready for an attempted escape. His flyer once again hit his mark without a problem.

"Ash's Starley is unable to battle. Paul's Starley is the winner." Brock announced when his friend's creature fell unconscious on the ground. The canine could hear the doom and glum tone in the breeder's voice for the second sentence.

'So, I guess, he can feel it too.' Kyubimon thought since there was something about this one that didn't feel right.

"Starley, return now." Ash announced and the down and out bird turned red and returned to the ball in beam form. "You were great, Starley." He added with the ball facing him. The canine cutie smiled at her friend's loyalty to his creatures, and then she heard the other trainer.

"I think I figured out your battle style. You cover up your ware attacks by pushing and when you combine that with that lame-o strategy like yours I can't help, but feel sorry for any Pokemon who gets stuck with a lousy trainer like you." Paul criticized before recalling his beast. "That's all you've got?!" He spoke down to the monster in the sphere in his hand.

"Now, Aipom, your up next." Ash shouted out while shrugging off the other's words. The purple furred monkey was released and ready to rock.

"Stand by - Chimchar." Paul said and threw his second beast into the fight.

"Chimchar." The new red furred monkey announced. 'Let's fight.' Was what the monkey said to the opponent.

"A Chimcar?" Ash questioned in surprise before pulling out his Pokedex.

"Chimchar, the monkey Pokemon. Chimchar easily climbs the sheerest of walls, and lives on mountain tops. When it sleeps it's flames go out." The computer voice said to the user. Paul saw this and got a cruel smile out of it.

"Isn't that nice. You got your Chimchar lesson for today." He said to the vixen's partner in pure sarcasm, which really ticked him off.

"Swift, Aipom!" Ash announced to his old friend.

"Aipom." The purple one shouted with bright yellow stars coming from his third fist. 'Right, Ash.' Is what his name meant this time.

"Ember!" Paul ordered to his creature, who followed the order. When the attacks hit a thick smokescreen was formed.

"Use Focus Punch." Ash ordered and the monkey focused energy into her tail, and got ready to attack.

"Flame Wheel." Paul shouted and the monkey obeyed. The fire attack beat the Normal attack in terms of charging and firing.

"That Focus Punch disappeared." Dawn announced after seeing the Flame Wheel hit and the punch's energy disappear.

"Yes, if a Pokemon is using Focus Punch and gets attacked before its complete the attack can't be finished." Rowin informed the new girl, and was impressed at this kid's skill level, but he had a feeling that Ash was far from done.

"Not a good choice of attacks, Ash." Paul gloated and added, "Chimchar, go." The monkey for his side ran straight ahead.

"Double Team, Aipom." Ash said as a counter move, and his friend created several copies. Paul was ready for that move.

"Ember!" He demanded which the pyro primate did just that. The attack caused all of the copies to disappear.

"Uh-oh." Ash said once the copies were all done, but he had a feeling this trainer wasn't done with Aipom just yet.

"Now use Scratch." The purple haired punk ordered and was obeyed. Ash's five fisted beast took the damage with one arm for defense.

"Focus Punch, again, Aipom." Pallet Town's protector requested. The monkey got some distance from the scratch and focused the attack on the tail fist again.

"Chimchar, use Flame Wheel." Paul ordered which was obeyed, but he still had to think, 'When is this wannabe going to get it, that attack doesn't work on me.' He watched as the wheel was right on course.

"Just wait, that's it." Ash pep talked his primate while the attacks were coming at each other.

"What's he up to?" Paul questioned aloud after hearing what the other trainer said to his creature. The attacks were still coming at each other, but this time Ash knew how to deal with it.

"Now, jump and then dodge." Ash said which was obeyed with Aipom planting one of his hands on the ground and went airborne. "Now, hit it." Ketchum continued to say, and they all watched as the Focus Punch came down like a hammer, dissipating the Flame Wheel.

"Chim…char." The monkey said after the attack hit, and he laid on the ground knocked out. They all knew that meant. 'Ow, that hurt.'

"Chimchar is unable to battle, Aipom is the winner." Brock proclaimed with his arm to Ash's side of the field.

"Alright!" The female shouted in praise of the heroes feat.

"Okay, Chimchar, return." Paul ordered and the red beam recalled the out Pokemon. "Your still just as useless as can be." The trainer said in disgust of his creature, unable to believe that his creature lost the fight.

"Aipom, return." Ash said and his ball helped him as well. "You were awesome." The hero praised with the ball facing him. Ketchum then looked at Paul with determination. "It looks like it's one on one.' He proclaimed, meaning that both have one win and one loss. The raven haired youth turned to Kyubimon and said, "Kyubimon, old friend, it's you and me. Ready?"

"As always." She answered back to him. She then calmly walked into the battlefield, and stood ready.

"Alright. Stand by - Elekid." Paul announced while throwing his final Pokemon into the fight. The newest coordinator was surprised of the attackers.

"Elekid, how cool." The stocking hat girl said before pulling out her Pokedex.

"Elekid, the electric Pokemon. Elekid waves it's arms to produce a strong electrical charge and gains strength when lightning is present." The voice said to her.

"Tell me something. Is Kyubimon the one that brought down that robot?" Paul questioned, wondering if this weakling and his pet defeated a machine.

"It was a team effort, but yeah, so what?" Ash countered with since he did not understand his point.

"So, nothing." Paul answered back since he did not wish for the weaker man to know of his game plan.

"Hmm, since you think my strategy is lame then how about I let Kyubimon do this herself." Ash offered to him with a smirk since he had a feeling this is how she would want it.

"What are you talking about? A trainer is supposed to tell Pokemon what to do." Paul countered.

"Does it matter? You seem certain you'll win regardless of what I do." Ash said and after he received a 'humph' as an answer the fight began. "It's all your's Kyubimon." He said to her and then stood there with his arms crossed.

"My pleasure, Ash." The vixen said, more then happy to put him in his place. Without wasting a moment she rammed in with her head, and launched him into the air.

"I can handle that, use Brick Break." Paul ordered and the walking plug in was ready to obey. The problem was that she dodged the attack from both fists. "Come on, take her down. Use Thunder." He ordered and the attack went, but just like before she dodged, this time by leaping high into the air, while the Thunder attack landed harmlessly into the open field.

"Should we end this to truly start our journey?" Kyubimon asked the young kit over what to do since she has had her fill with this trainer.

"Do want you want, old friend." He said back to her, and knew that she intended to hold back for the sake of sparing Elekid's life.

"Dragon Wheel!" She announced and spun into a circle while unleashing a bright blue dragon. The electric type could only stare in sheer awe at the power above him, but that stopped once Paul spoke

"Stop your gawking and use Protect." He demanded and the creature put up a full body sphere, but as soon as the dragon hit it the shield shattered and the runt was hit with all that power.

"That should silence him." The canine muttered after landing back in front of Ash.

"Elekid is unable to battle, Kyubimon, wins." Brock announced and that was when the battle ended. Ash walked over to his opponent and decided to be a good sport.

"Well, that was a tough battle, but I guess the better man won; good job." Ketchum said to Paul and then offered a handshake for good measure. The other seemed to accept it, but at the last second he batted the hand away.

"Losing to an armature like you doesn't count." Paul said in suppressed anger. He then took the Starley Pokeball and released its hostage. This caused the black haired youth to get anger, and Paul saw it so he said, "What? There are a billion Starley just as strong as that one, and as soon as I run into one, I'll capture it." He said without any problem.

'Rika's problem doesn't even come close to his.' The digi-damsel thought since despite almost loosing to Dokugumon, and being thrashed by Miharimon the red head stayed with her.

"Professor, thanks for the use of the field, I appreciate it." Paul said to avoid eye contact with the victor, and walked away. The trainer watched him leave, but he stopped when a bright white light came behind him.

"What?" He questioned and saw that it was Renamon, she de-digivolved, back to her Rookie form.

"Looks like that worked." She said once she saw that she was standing on her hind legs again.

"Is something the matter Renamon?" He questioned in concern since the last time she was Champion form it took her a night or so to become her previous form.

"No, Ash, but apparently I no longer have to sleep in order to regress, I can control when I can do such a thing, but I do not know if I can Digivolve on my own." She said to her friend, who was just grateful of that skill. Soon the three officially left on their way.


	6. Chapter 6

The wondering minstrel

The four of them were a good distance away from their starting point of Sandgem Town, and the human female spotter a creature that she missed earlier. "Guys, hang on a second." Dawn said to them after spotting a familiar brown head.

"Why? What for?" Ash questioned with his faithful canine standing shoulder to shoulder with him. Both of them wanted to get to the new town ASAP, but they did not want to seem rude to the new girl.

"Over there, it's a Buneary. I messed up getting one when I was first starting out, so I want to try it again." The novice explained to the three senior fighters. The gym leader, the Digimon, and the hero looked at each other - just looking for the same answer, and they all knew that they could spare the time.

"Sure thing, Dawn." Brock said to her and spotted a rather large rock in the same clearing the long eared one was at. "I'll just sit there." He informed them and did so; he did not wish to pressure her.

"I will do the same." The vixen said, but instead of sitting next to him she behind the rock since she did not want the vested one to get any ideas.

"I'm just going to see your style." The raven haired youth commented and stood beside the rock, ready to give her pointers. Dawn watched as they got into those spots before getting out one of her Pokeballs.

"Buneary?" The rabbit in question asked aloud which the canine heard it as, 'What's this?' The excited youth was too happy to care what it had to say.

"This time for sure, Dawn. Go for it." Ash said to her in an encouraging manner not noticing the cold feeling in the air with his battling buddy as the source.

"I'm so psyched! Here we go." She shouted in joy before raising her armed arm while forgetting a crucial step, but the older boy was there to set her straight.

"Hold on. You've got to make your Pokeball bigger first." Ketchum said to her and that was when she noticed the sphere in her hand.

"Huh?" She questioned while hearing him and then saw what he meant.

"You better hurry. Before it gets away." Ash said to her as he watched her fumble the small ball in her hands. He did not like to recall the moment he let a Pokemon get free in a forest, but his current starting creature was more then happy to do it for him.

"Do you mean the way you let a Weevil escape?" Renamon questioned to him with a coy smile on her lips.

"Uh…no of course not." He said back to her failing to notice that the back of his head was sweating from embarrassment. While they were chatting Dawn was able to get a grip on her ball and enhance its size.

"All right. I'm ready now." The female shouted and then decided to go forward with her plan by saying, "Let's go Pokeball." She threw it, but the split second it left her finger tips she realized that she was throwing in the wrong direction.

"Augh!" Ash shouted when his forehead met the steel ball forcing onto his back, and that got his protector's attention.

"Ash." Renamon said before kneeling beside him; helping him sit up from his fall. "Are you alright?" She questioned to him. The creature heard how he had been through plenty of punishment, but she still worried about him.

"Sure, Renamon, I'm fine." He said back to her not noticing that the canine was looking at the thrown object.

'Was she trying to capture Ash for herself?' Renamon thought and was barely able to suppress her rage at the thought if that ploy actually worked.

"Oops. Sorry." Dawn said to the boy, praying that her words were enough over what she had done, but sadly they weren't.

"What the shell was that all about, Dawn?" Ash shouted at the new girl after rising to his feet. He was a little angered that he was struck by friendly fire and by a starter on top of that.

"It was an accident." Dawn said to him with her hands on her hips since she did not like his tone to her. "If you hadn't been yelling at me my hand wouldn't have slipped." She added to her earlier comment.

"You weren't doing it right." He said back to her, still ticked that she wasn't taking his advice. Even though that May turned his lesson to her back on him with the attempted Treecko capture.

'This is definitely like Rika and Takato only gender swapped.' Renamon thought and recalled the countless times that her red headed, stubborn partner often lectured to the goggle wearer of all the lame cards he uses in battle.

"Look, don't you get nasty with me." The girl said back to him; angry that he was acting this way to a beginner.

"Just get it together and I won't have to." The experienced one shouted back in anger. Unfortunately they were arguing they were unaware that the target was leaving the area.

"Buneary." The rabbit said as it hopped away which the canine could hear it say 'see ya.' As soon as it left the Pokemon that belonged to the beginner spoke up.

"Piplup. Piplup. Pip Pip." The penguin shouted out while pointing to the forest edge. 'Look, over there you two: quick' is what it translated to, and when they did both saw that the bunny was gone.

"No! Buneary!" The two trainers shouted as one which started another argument between them.

"Well, I hope your happy now." Dawn commented to the boy; trying to make him feel lousy, but it would not work.

"Don't look at me." Ash shouted back at her since he did not like it nowadays when blame was put on someone other than the person who caused it.

"Why not? It's your fault." Dawn shouted back to her traveling partner.

"It was your yapping that scared Buneary away, ya know." Ketchum said back to her since she should not have been apologizing for her lousy aim the girl should have focused on the fight. The four travelers decided to walk for a bit, gain a bit more distance to their next location.

"Just great. I could have a Buneary if it wasn't for a certain big mouth." Dawn said while walking forward with closed eyes.

"Oh, yeah?" Ash questioned after hearing her comment and then decided to say something his old self would say. "I could easily get a Buneary, no a Lopunny, despite your big mouth." He said to her not knowing that he may soon eat those words.

"Next time: but out." The daughter of a great coordinator said to the traveler in anger.

"That is if there is a next time." The boy said back to her in an almost smug tone.

"I'm catching lots of Pokemon." Dawn said while coming to a complete stop and faced the boy to say that comment.

"You won't if you keep doing stupid stuff." Ash said back to the novice.

'I hope he realizes that he is being like how Gary was when they first started out.' Renamon thought as she listened to another volley of comments from the two children.

"Are you calling me stupid?" The human female questioned to him while walking to meet him face to face.

"No, but I'm thinking of it now." He said back to her, and this time he was telling the truth since his calm side of his mind was about to activate until she asked that question.

"How can you think without a brain?" She demanded in a shout not noticing the ruffled fur from the canine for her choice of words.

"You tell jokes as good as you capture Pokemon." He shouted back at her showing that he was unaffected from her vocal jab. The dual shouting was so bad that the keeper of the map had to step in.

"You're both hurting my ears." He said to them and no sooner then he said that the sun started to become a lot brighter overhead. "Huh?" The breeder questioned after feeling the intense rays of the sun.

"Huh?" The bickering battlers also stopped when they saw and felt the enhanced sun above them.

"What is this?" The hat wearer questioned since he knew that this was not a natural act of their planet.

"Pretty." The new girl said while also looking up at the sky.

"That's called Sunny Day." The breeder said to them, and the name threw the other three off, so one of them had to ask for more information.

"Sunny Day?" Ash questioned since he was not sure what it meant, and he knew that the breeder would have an idea of what it does.

"It's a Fire type move - Fire types use it to temporarily use it to raise their power." The former gym leader said to them, filling in the gap over what the move does. A little into starring into the bright rays the two felt more relaxed for some reason.

"All of a sudden I feel so much happier." Dawn said to them and shortly she informed the other three of that the rays calmed down. Once they did a short green creature came over to them.

"Budew. Budew." The creature said to them which meant, 'Hello, how are you?' The three just starred at the new arrival and the vixen decided not to bring up the minor question to the others.

"Who's that?" Ash questioned while reaching for his dexter.

"So, cute." Dawn said while clasping both hands into one. The other trainer by now has taken out his Pokedex and flipped it open.

"Budew the bud Pokemon - in winter it keeps its bud closed to survive the cold and then opens it again in the spring." The computer said to them over what the plant was known for.

"I wonder if this is where that Sunny Day came from." Brock questioned to them while Ash put away his electronic dictionary.

"It was." A new voice said to them causing the four of them to look past the bud-like creature to see a man in a green cloak and green hat and holding a yellow Mew harp sitting behind an upcoming tree to their left. "Hardened words, but reflect hardened hearts let the Sunny Day soften yours." The man added while standing up, turning to face them, and strummed a few strings on his harp. "For when your heart is light your mood is happy and bright." The man added to his other comment to the four of them. "Tell me, don't you feel better now?" The man questioned to the fellow travelers.

"Huh? Huh? Yeah, your right." The two that were once arguing said while getting his message, looking at each other, and then looked at him to give him their answer.

"As it should be." The musical one said to them, and after a pause the foursome decided to fill the new guy in on their names since it was the right thing to do.

"Thanks. I'm Ash." The fellow raven haired traveler said first.

"My name is Renamon." The bright yellow vixen said to him still getting over the fact that in this world she did not need to hide in the shadows.

"And my name is Dawn." The coordinator said to the man before them.

"Hi, I'm Brock." The one bringing up the rear informed.

"And I am the Pokemon Bard - Nando." The man said politely to them, and they had to admit that this was a vast improvement over another Sinnoh male native that they had met. "This is my Budew. We travel the world bringing joy to all." He informed to the group.

"Awesome." Ketchum said aloud after hearing that piece of news while looking down at the beginning form Pokemon.

'A definite improvement over the beginning trainer Paul.' Renamon thought while trying not to picture Ash in a similar outfit as their newest ally.

"You must have a great time." Brock said; complimenting their new friend over what he does even though that is what his friend does, but instead of music he does it through deeds.

"Hey, I've got it, Ash." Dawn said after having an idea in that stocking cap head of hers. "Now, I can show you how strong I've gotten." She said to them after seeing three sets of eyes on her.

"How?" The fellow trainer questioned since he new that a newbie couldn't handle strength of a Digital Monster.

"Nando, would you mind battling with me?" She asked politely to the trainer before her.

'Can she not see the flaw in this?' Renamon thought since she and the others knew that plants loved water.

"If that pleases you." He responded politely to her since he, himself, saw no harm in it at all. His faithful creature was more then willing for this challenge as well as it spoke.

"Budew Budew." The grass creature said which meant 'Fine, let's go.' Ash heard her challenge and decided to give her some friendly advice.

"Don't forget this is your very first battle with a Pokemon Trainer." He said to her in a warning sense to her.

"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine." Dawn said back to him, not really putting his words seriously. The musician decided to step in before another argument could take place.

"Dawn, are you by any chance on your way to win the Sinnoh League?" Nando questioned to her since everyone else he had met answered 'yes' to this question, but he still asked it to all.

"No. I'm on a quest to win the Grand Festival." She said to them while adding plenty of joy to the words 'Grand Festival'. He heard her and knew that this group may help him with a question that has been plaguing him for a while now.

"I see. Then a contest battle it is." He said back to her in a soft tone. "There's a clearing up ahead that will be perfect for our needs." He informed her and her comrades.

"Great." The young lady said back in excitement, and as they followed the man all but Renamon knew that Ash's stalkers were right behind them.

"That's the new twerp." James said after he and the others appeared from the shrubs behind the group. 'I guess that it's his charm that draws these girls to him.' The male human of the group thought as he recalled May - the first new girl after Misty. 'He can keep that charm. I already work for someone I like.' He thought while looking through the corner of his eye to the female, but soon heard the fellow male of the team speak.

"Yeah. She's the gal that was with Renamon." Meowth commented while watching them walk away. The sight of the new girl got the female stalker riled up.

"Thinking she can win contests take some nerve?" Jessie said to the others with suppressed rage.

"Like you…" James was about to continue, but was interrupted by the cat.

"Snap out of it." Meowth said to her since she has been speaking like this ever since they flew off from the orange bot's destruction.

"Hey, I'll snap you!" She shouted to the males, and then continued; "Only one diva wins the next contest - this one." She then went into a heap of laughter; she was so far into laughing that she did not hear the other's conversation.

"Diva's right." James and Meowth commented aloud after a sigh of defeat since they were never going to gain an argument with her.

"Wobbbuffet!" The blue creature shouted after releasing himself from his round prison. Meowth heard him say, 'Your right about that.' And that was when another creature appeared.

"Mime Mime." The small pink creature said with its hand on its head. Meowth heard that it said, 'Yep, definitely right.' The group then decided to head to the growth around the open area where the battle was about to start.

"K, first thing's first." Dawn said after enlarging her Pokeball, and then added, "My Pokemon has to make a gorgeous entrance. Okay, then, Piplup: spotlight." After she said that she threw the ball and summoned the bird in question.

"Piplup Piplup." The bird said which stood for, 'Ready when you are.' Their latest friend saw the bird and heard its enthusiasm, so he knew what to say.

"You may have the first attack." Nando said calmly.

"Thanks." Dawn said and then looked at her opposing creature. "Alright, we're fighting a Grass type so let's do a flying type attack." The girl said aloud and knew what to use. "Piplup, use Peck." She ordered to her friend.

"Pip pip pip." Piplup said aloud which the fellow fighter could translate to, 'Here I come, Budew.' The bard saw the charging, but remained calm in the face of this attack.

"Please, dodge it." Nando requested to his partner.

"Budew." The creature answered meaning, 'Of course.' The plant then jumped straight up seconds before the bird's attack hit.

"What happened?" Dawn questioned after seeing that her attack had indeed missed. The three on the side lines were in awe over what had happened.

"That's fast." Ash said after seeing the dodge, but knew that it was nothing compared to Renamon's speed.

"Please, Bullet Seed." He asked again, and just like before Budew was more then happy to do so.

'Here's an attack.' It said even though humans only heard - "Budew." When the multiple yellow shells shot out of the airborne seed the breeder knew that this was bad.

"Bullet Seed is a Grass type move which can give a water type like Piplup big problems." He informed and then watched as the seeds were sprayed in a neat line right toward the penguin.

"Dodge it, Piplup." Dawn said to her battling partner.

"Piplup." The bird said which sounded like, 'Right.' The dodge was made and added, "Pip." Meaning to those that understood it as, 'Made it.' The girl saw that the dodge was successful, and new that she had a chance.

"All right, my turn. Piplup, use BubbleBeam." She shouted out and the flightless one was ready to counter attack.

"Piplup-lup." It shouted which meant, 'Take this.' The attack struck the descending seed which hit it's target.

"Budew." The Pokemon shouted in alarm, but in reality it said, 'Nice.' It said such a thing because the Water class attack dehydrated it.

"All right." Dawn said while seeing the smoke. Believing that she made a serious hit, but the three boys, and a dog knew better than that. "Huh?" She questioned after hearing Nando chuckle a bit.

"Budew." The creature shouted after emerging from the smoke, and then landed with a little twirl adding another, "Budew." Instead Renamon heard: 'Ta-Da.' For the first comment and 'I'm back.' For the second comment.

"But how? That was a direct hit." Dawn questioned and knew that her partner could not tell her the answer since it too was surprised.

"It wasn't that strong. Water types do that much against Grass types." Ash said aloud not noticing the admiring gaze from the canine beside him.

'So, he learned a few things over his travels.' The Digimon thought before hearing the lecher's comment.

"Budew absorbed the attack on purpose and then, and then made that big jump. Brilliant! It even used the smoke from the explosion." The breeder said aloud; amazed of Nando's skill level.

'So, he can actually think of more than the next girl he might see, and will flirt with. Interesting.' Renamon thought after hearing his statement. She knew that the opponent was not done yet.

"SolarBeam, if you please." Nando requested to his friend.

"Budew." The creature answered meaning, 'Of course.' The intertwining 'arms' on the top of its head began to absorb the energy needed. This gave the new girl a new found sense of overconfidence.

'I know it takes time for SolarBeam to fire.' Dawn thought and then decided to go on the attack with the 'defenseless' fighter. "Piplup, use Peck." She said with an arm gesture to her current foe.

"Piplup." The penguin said back meaning, 'Right.' No sooner then the bird started to charge that the two of them saw a small flash of light on top of the seed.

"Uh-Oh." The duo said as they knew what was going to happen now. The traveler saw it too, and knew what to do.

"Please fire now." He said and just like that the attack was fired, and it scored a direct hit on it's foe.

"No, Piplup." Dawn shouted to the smoke which was formed after the attack hit. The bird in question soared out of the cloud, screaming in pain from the attack before landed on the ground - unconscious. "Piplup! My Piplup." The trainer said before racing over to her friend, and cupping the creature into her arms.

"It appears our battle is over." The bard said to her calmly.

"Budew Budew." The creature of the bard said while almost clapping at the comment. 'Yes, it does.' The creature said in it's natural tongue.

"How did they do SolarBeam so fast?" Dawn questioned with her partner still in her arms. She was completely in the dark since she was led to believe that it took one full turn to launch the attack in question.

"It must have been from their Sunny Day and the sunlight getting much stronger from it." Brock said to her his guess on how that worked for the man.

'That is a tough combo to deal with.' Renamon thought to herself, and knew that she could take it.

"I see." The novice said after standing up with a conscious Piplup in her arms. "I'm so sorry, Piplup." She said to the bird and even though that she only head it say it's name the creature was really saying:

'Don't worry, Dawn.' The Water class did not want to see her worried over her first trainer battle. Nando saw the young one's discouragement, and decided to step in since it was only right.

"Dawn, I wouldn't have guessed that it was your first battle. You were so good." He said to her and saw that his statement worked in a positive way judging by the look in her eyes.

"Wow, that's such a nice thing to say. Thank you." Dawn said back to him; just being friendly like he was being. The three decided to give it a go as well.

"You can be sure it was good experience." Brock said while looking at the bard instead of Dawn when he spoke. "Those two really know how to battle." He added and then let the trainer take over.

"Yeah, no doubt. It'll help you get a lot stronger." Ash said to her with a clenched right fist. The fox knew what they were trying to do and decided to try her luck at the encouraging thing.

"Next time: check out the types, and then decided to challenge." She said as best as she could, but most of the time she had a straight forward approach.

"Yeah." Dawn said to the three and heard some cheers from the swimmer in her arms which could translate to.

'They're right that was good experience, and next time we'll be ready.' The harp player could see that the four part team was good over what had happened and did not want to seem like a bother to them.

"I am off. Best of luck." Nando said to them, and calmly walked away. As the heroes watched their new friend walk away their stalkers surfaced from their hiding spots.

"Oh, please, now that was a laugh. She's a twerp, alright. I could out whoop that twerp with my eyes close." Jessie said aloud. The two heard her and knew that their friend was great at boasting, but they knew she wasn't in the same ballpark of Drew or even May, so they tried to goad her into deal with her boasting.

"Then just do it." James said to her calmly which he saw his statement surprised her, and then the fellow male spoke out.

"Talk the talk. Walk the walk." The feline added with an angry expression on his face since he was just about done listening to those kinds of empty threats.

"In good time." The long haired one said back to them since she knew what they were trying to do, and then added, "But first there's a Renamon that needs napping." The two knew that she would change the subject, but they went along with it. The group decided to keep walking and all was quiet until the hour of sunset.

"Aw, man. I can't catch a Pokemon, and I can't win a battle." Dawn said aloud. She liked the kind words of the four, but she still felt bad over what had happened today.

"Hey, chill out. Have a nice dinner, get a good night sleep, and you'll be fine tomorrow." Ash said to his female friend, trying to cheer her up.

"Always the optimist, Ash." Renamon said while walking beside him. The latest trainer heard him, but one thing confused her.

"Good night sleep? How do you get that without a bed?" She questioned to the experienced one.

'Good thing we didn't have someone like you slowing us down when we went to rescue Calumon.' Renamon thought since the humans of that realm didn't mind roughing it at all.

"Hey, look, there's a Pokemon Center not too far from here." Brock informed them as he walked and looked at the map at the same time.

"REALLY?" Dawn questioned after hearing the comment, and then added, "Who-ra! A real bed in a real room - I can join civilization again." This comment caused the vixen to slap her right paw to her face and let out an annoyed groan, but no one noticed that: especially Brock.

"All right, Bonsly, let's go." The former gym leader shouted while releasing the creature in question.

"Bonsly." The new creature shouted while the Digimon heard, 'Hi, there.' The two others turned to face the released creature that was in the breeder's arms.

"Bonsly, we're going to a Pokemon Center and you're going to be checked out by Nurse Joy." The man said while sounding that he was suppressing tears of joy, and they heard a happy 'Bonsly', but the vixen heard.

'Sounds good.' The new girl was amazed over what she was seeing, and had to ask about it.

"That's a Bonsly." Dawn said while taking out her device and opening it.

"Bonsly, the bonsai Pokemon - Being a Rock type it can get weak if it's body contains too much water so it secrets that water from both sides of its body to regulate it." The encyclopedia said to her, and the fellow traveler had a question to ask of this.

"So, did you bring your other Pokemon too?" Ash asked since he wanted to see Steelix since he and Crobat were two that have been with them since the start of it all.

"Nope. My brothers and sisters are watching them all for me back at the Pewter Gym." He answered back and saw a slight look of disappointment in his friend's eyes, but didn't say anything.

"What? Gym?" Dawn questioned to the taller man; wondering if she heard him right and that was when the others realized that this latest recruits had no knowledge of their lives.

"Oh, yeah. The gym back in Pewter City, Brock's family lives there and Brock was the gym's leader." Ash informed the girl and decided not to mention that he had already told Renamon before now.

"You were? Awesome!" Dawn shouted out loud, and then the canine decided to get the others back on track.

"Don't we have a Center to visit?" She questioned before walking on ahead. The others got the message and followed after her. After thirty minutes or so the four made it a cottage of sorts with a Large 'P' on the left side of the roof.

"Ah, Good Evening, Nurse Joy." Brock said after they all got inside.

"Hello." The Digital Monster said with a simple head not.

"Good Evening, and welcome to the Pokemon Center." A familiar voice in a familiar body said to them, and Renamon knew that the new girl was going to have difficulty with this exact same design.

"Hold on. Are you from Sandgem Town?" Dawn questioned to the woman before her since her mind was blown because of the nurse before them.

'She'll get over it.' Ash thought since he was now used to this sort of thing, but the one that he still wasn't used to was the buff Joy back at the Orange Islands.

"Not me." The head medic said with a laugh mixed in and then added, "The Nurse Joy from Sandgem Town is my sister." This confused the new girl even more.

"Sister?" The fellow hat wearer questioned and this time it was Brock that filled her in on this 'problem'.

"See." Brock said to her while taking a photo from his backpack; framed and all.

"You mean there's that many Nurse Joys?" The beginner coordinator questioned after looking at the picture.

"Isn't it great? All Nurse Joys are related. Every gorgeous one." The breeder said grateful that he printed off a group shot off Sinnoh Nurse Joys from a medical website.

"Wow." Dawn said back wondering if she should feel relieved or freaked after learning this. "You like that." She added before watching as he took his picture back and went to work.

"My dear, although all of you are beautiful you're beauty stands out." Brock said while holding the nurse's right hand and he was knelt on his left knee.

"Huh?" Joy questioned and then thought, 'This must be the obsessed perv on the Nurse Joy website.' His actions did not go unnoticed by the others in his party.

"Hey, wait, Brock was acting the exact same way with Officer Jenny. What's up with that?" The coordinator questioned while pointing at the sight before them.

"Yeah. There's a question, but no answer." Ash said to her in a nervous fashion since this was one flaw of the old team that worried him. He did not want May, and now Dawn, to think that he was like his old friend when it came to the fairer sex.

"May I hurt him now, Ash?" Renamon questioned while cracking her knuckles: ready for a strong punch to the top of his head.

"No, not just yet, Renamon." Her partner said back to her before approaching the scene. "Hey, Brock, let's go to the vid phones. Dawn needs to tell her mom where she is." The trainer said with a hand on his fellow trainer's shoulder.

"Not right now, Ash, can't you see…" Brock started to say something, but suddenly found his feet off the ground.

"Perhaps you did not hear Ash, he wants you over there." Renamon said before throwing the lecher over to the telephones. Dawn saw where they were going with this and decided to go with the flow.

"Was that necessary, Renamon?" Ash questioned even though that he was surprised at her strength control. The duo walked over to the phones and soon he got a reply.

"Diplomacy might not have worked on him." She said back before the two stopped at one of the phones. Dawn had already gotten the number punched in and the woman in question on the screen before them.

"I certainly appreciate you looking after my Dawn." The woman on the other end said to the boys, and fox behind her daughter. "I realize of course that she can sometimes be a handful." The mother informed them.

"Oh-no." The two men said to try to side with Dawn, but Renamon had put her hand on her partner's shoulder, but the boy in question could not understand why.

"Come on, mom. There's nothing to worry about." The daughter of the woman said with a waving right hand.

"When you tell me there's nothing to worry about then that's when I worry the most." The mom said back to the adventurer. The three of them saw that their new friend was sweating bullets after hearing that. "Now, don't forget I'm counting on you two." Johanna said to the two of them.

"We won't." The males of the group said as one.

"Then you all have a great time. Ash, lots of luck in all your gym battles." Johanna said with a polite wave while her other hand was holding her Glameow in her lap. When she hung up the older woman questioned aloud, "It almost seemed that Renamon was protecting Ash from me, but why I do not seem him that way…do I?" She questioned, but got no answer from the feline. Back at the Center Dawn did not like her conversation with her mother at all.

"My mom what a mom." Dawn questioned with her hands on her hips once her end went black. Nurse Joy of this location realized a question that she should have asked earlier, but was distracted, so she decided to do so now.

"Oh, Ash, by the way have you registered yet for the Sinnoh League? You'll need to." She questioned to the infamous trainer of the group. That was when the trainer realized that he had yet to do so.

"Ah, not yet." He said back to her with a slack jawed face.

"Not yet is right." Dawn added and then watched as the boy gave her his Pokedex before they all walked over to the front desk.

'Kicking Paul's ungrateful tail must have made him forget.' Renamon thought while bringing up the rear as they headed back to the front of the building.

"Otherwise you won't be able to compete." Joy explained after putting the young man's device into her computer. She then did what she learned in nursing school. "Now, let's see here. Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town." She said while looking at all of the info: his creatures, height, weight, eye color - the usual. "That's all there is to it." She said to them while taking out the device and handing to him while adding, "Here, you're all set and ready to roll."

"Thanks Nurse Joy." He said to her after retrieving the device from her outstretched hands. Dawn saw this and decided to ask a minor question to the medic.

"Can I register for Pokemon Contests here; I'm a coordinator." The young girl said to the older woman in a polite tone.

"You need to do that at the arena. You can get passes there as well." Joy said to the young one before her.

"Great. Thank you." Dawn said after hearing that little piece of news. That's when the group heard some voices from behind them.

"Nurse Joy." A male voice called out to her. "Hey, we're back. Would you mind taking care of our Pokemon?" The boy said as a fellow male and one female walked in with entry level creatures of their regions before them.

"Wow. Chimchar, Turtwig, and would you look at that…" Dawn said after she and the others turned to face the new arrivals, but the reason Dawn stopped was because she was walking closer to the creatures. "A Prinplup. Doesn't it evolve from Piplup?" She questioned the group.

"Right. It just evolved yesterday." The female of the group informed to the fellow female. Dawn wasted no time in finding out information about the bird in front of her.

"Prinplup, the penguin Pokemon and the evolved form of Piplup - a strike from its wings can be harmful as it searches the oceans for pray." The machine stated to the owner.

"Wow." The beginner said not noticing that another entered the Center until he spoke.

"Well, Dawn." The voice said which caused the girl in question to look at the source of the voice and saw that it was their latest friend.

"Nando." She said excitedly once she saw the kind man before her. "What a surprise." She added to her earlier comment.

"Yes, it is. A pleasant one." He said back to her, and the moment that he came in the nurse went to work and got him his Pokemon.

"Here you go. Your Budew is feeling one hundred percent." Nurse Joy said after placing the Grass type on her countertop.

"I am in your debt." He said back to her in a soft tone of voice. The female human of the four of them walked up to the quiet man to find out a thing or two.

"Are you staying at the center too?" Dawn asked the traveler.

"No. There are several things I need to ponder." He said to the young girl while placing his hands at the base of his friend. "And so, Good Evening." He said to them before walking away calmly.

"What's he pondering?" The trainer questioned since he was curious of the silent man's motive.

"Nando divides his interests equally between gym battles and contests. I think he's trying to decide between the two." Nurse Joy informed them as they all watched him walk away.

"Yeah? With a strong Budew like his - he should always choose gym battles." Ketchum said aloud and knew that he was right since the man had some skill for that path.

"No way. It's contests. He sure knew how to show off his Budew." Dawn said back knowing that she knew what was best for him while on the sideline the breeder knew one thing:

'This is gonna get worse before it gets better.' He thought before listening to them.

"The gyms the way." Ash said back a bit more sternly.

"He should choose contests." Dawn said equally as sternly.

'I hope they are alright.' Joy thought as she watched with muted disbelief of how quickly they went from friendly to at each other's throats.

"The gyms." Ash shouted back at her.

"Contests." The girl said back.

"The gyms." Ketchum shouted back.

"Contests!" The coordinator shouted, and that was when the boy changed gears.

"Maybe we should let Nando decide for himself." The trainer said to her with fist raised to hers.

"That's fine!" She shouted back and with that the two of them ran out of the building shoulder to shoulder.

"Here we go." Brock said, knowing that he was going to be the one to drag them back, but before that he tried his swooning stunt one last go. "Dear Nurse Joy, until we meet again…" He started to say before a voice and grip caused him to pause.

"Let's go, lover-boy." Renamon said as she grabbed the collar of the man and then ran for the door, but Brock was still able to finish his comment.

"Awayyyyy!" He shouted and when they left the nurse still tried to be polite over what just happened.

"Good by. Good luck." She said with a waving hand, and outside of the Pokemon Center the four were trying to find the man.

"I'm sane again, Renamon. You can let me go." The breeder said to the fox and was surprised that she kept him from skidding on the ground as she ran.

"Very well." She said and released her grip, and after that the four of them decided to try to find their friends.

"Hmm, nobodies here." Ash commented well into the evening hours as the four of them headed deeper into the forest. The human girl looked to her right and did not see anything either.

"That's weird. I wonder where he went." She said while still looking in that direction. A little before this conversation Ash released Starley for some recon, and was not coming back to them to fill them in.

"Hey, did you see Nando, Starley?" Ash questioned after his flyer landed on the large rock in front of them. The bird knew that this was the main question and did not like coming back empty handed so it hung it's head with a 'Starley' which meant.

'Sorry.' The others could tell by its voice that the bird was sad so they did not wish to pour salt into the Flying types wound.

"If he was here Starley would have seen it." Brock commented while looking around.

"Thanks for looking. Starley: return." Ash commanded after taking out his Pokeball which the sphere shot and recalled a red beam. After putting the ball up Ash decided to tell the new gal the bad news, "Sorry Dawn looks like we'll have to camp out here." He informed her and knew that she would not take it well.

"What! We're not going back to the Pokemon Center." Dawn said in alarm after hearing the news.

"By the time we get there the sun'll be up." Ketchum said back to her since he could tell by the sky that they've been out for a good four or so hours.

"Yeah. Guess your right." The girl said in defeat since she had a feeling that the boy beside her spoke the truth. That was when the gym leader of old decided to say what has been bugging him for a while now.

"You always do this." He started to say to get their attention and then went deeper, "You go running off without thinking for a second what the consequences might be." The two knew that he was right about that.

"Right." The male and female said with slumped heads. Renamon smirked after hearing his comment surprised that he could actually be strict to his friends like this. She and the others heard voices from behind them.

"Worry not. We've got three hots and a cot." A familiar red head said to them.

"What you see is what we got." A familiar man said while standing beside the red head; both having clasped hands.

"The Rickety Roof Inn." The both of them said after seeing the group's confusion.

"An Inn? In a forest?" Ash questioned while playing along with his stalkers latest stunt.

"You see we love consumers it's people we can't stand." The red head said to them.

"But since you fit neither category you can stay for free." The male said to them and that is what got the groups attention.

"Well it is late, and they seem so nice." Brock pointed out even though that he too knew what this really was, but went along with it.

"Yeah." Dawn and Ash said: agreeing with what the older man had to say.

"Nice isn't the word." The two said with one open arm for either of them: Male had right, and female had left arm out. That was when a third one came out.

"And look a custom made sleeping bag for your foxy friend there." The third one said while unrolling a sold black sleeping back to them.

"Wow, they thought of everything." Ketchum said to them, now knowing that they were officially Team Rocket, but continued to play innocent.

"Yes, they have." The vixen said back while putting out plenty of sarcasm to test if the others knew that this was not working.

"When it comes to our customers we move mountains." The three of them said not hearing the sarcasm nor feeling the wind picking up behind them which caused the 'inn' to fall behind them. "Or walls?" The three said while being blinded by dust.

'Three…two…one, and cue blown cover.' Ash thought and sure enough when the smoke cleared the green open vests on all of them were gone.

"You were supposed to build a hotel not a Hollywood back lot movie set." Jessie complained to the cat.

"Let's see what you can build with two bucks." Meowth said back to her; trying to defend himself while James on the other hand only was thinking.

'I bet this didn't even work one bit with Ash.' The three decided to go with a line that they knew Dawn was going to use.

"Team Rocket!" The four of them shouted with three of them acting surprised.

"Twerps." The other three said aloud with James sounding less than enthused.

"We can name call just as well as you can." James said to them while trying to make up for his lack of volume for the 'twerp' word. They began to say their phrase and as that was going on Dawn looked over to the senior fighters who only shrugged at her, and then waited for it to be over.

"Why do you want Renamon so badly?" Dawn questioned after they were done prancing around.

"Why are you such a twerp?" Jessie questioned still thinking of all the ways that she is going to crush the new girl.

"Carnivine, time to come out and play." James said and then summoned out his old friend, but the moment the fly trap was summoned it double backed to the summoner. "No, time to play not time to bite." He instructed with his head in the jaws of the Grass type.

"What is that thing?" Ash questioned after getting an eyeful of the new creature.

"They must have a new Pokemon." Brock said and that was when Ash opened up his Pokedex for some answers.

"Carnivine, the bug catcher Pokemon - it uses it's sweet smelling saliva to catch it's pray." The machine said to them.

"Guys, leave this to me. Piplup use BubbleBeam." Dawn said after getting out the ball and throwing it. The creature instantly performed the stated attack, and that was when the bug catching creature leapt into action by drinking the attack with its rather large mouth.

"The BubbleBeam's gone." Dawn said in surprise as she and the penguin were surprised that the attack had no affect at all.

"Water type attacks don't have that much affect on Grass types like Carnivine." Brock said to her on why it did not work.

'I thought for certain that she would get that with the battle with Nando.' Renamon thought and then noticed the free Rocket member decided to go on the attack.

"Good for us; Bite for you." James said and then saw the lame faces after hearing his lousy play of words. The teams concentrated on the battle; of the trap closing in on the bird.

'This is going to hurt.' Piplup said even though the others only heard the name of the beast.

"Piplup." The coordinator said while freezing herself out of the battle, but luckily they were saved.

"Budew?" Ash questioned after seeing the cancelled Bite attack, and then watched as the creature added Bullet Seed which as soon as it struck the Rocket members they went flying.

"Where did that thing come from?" Jessie questioned after the group was in the air.

"I can't stand little green Pokemon." Meowth added to her comment.

"Something about big green ones rubs me the wrong way too." James said after hearing his friend's comment.

"We're blasting off again." The group shouted before disappearing into the sky, and as soon as they left a new man arrived.

"Such a shame. I was having such a pleasant evening before they showed up." The man that spoke that comment was in fact Nando, the trainer that they have been trying to find. "I trust you're alright." He said after looking from the sky to the group that he had met before.

"We're fine." They said as one.

"Thanks to you for helping us." Dawn added on her own.

"You know actually we came out here to look for you." Ash said to the trainer, and saw that what he said confused the bard.

"Me? Why?" He asked them, and that was when the tall creature of the group spoke.

"Perhaps we should discuss this off the trail." She said and with a silent nod the group went into the forest - to Nando's campsite.

"You're correct. I'm feeling torn choosing between contests or gym battles." Nando said to the group after they all took a seat on some downed logs.

"But Budew is so strong. Just perfect for the gym." Ketchum said to the fellow raven haired trainer.

"No way, Budew's moves were made for contests." Dawn said in defiance to the one sitting beside her.

"If I enter the Sinnoh League I need to win battles in eight gym locations which gives me eight badges. On the other hand, in order to appear in the Grand Festival I need to win a contest in a total of five arenas which will give me five ribbons." Nando said to the four; giving them the gist over what to do for either.

"Sounds to me the gym is your best bet." The trainer said to the traveler while thinking. 'With all of those battles it would evolve into a stronger form, and I want to take it on when Budew transforms.' After he thought that the female beside him spoke up to her idea.

"Sounds to me the contests are the way you should go." Dawn said while still thinking of the way she was aced on the battlefield.

"Gym battles!" Ash said to the girl angrily while facing her.

"No, contests!" Dawn shouted back at him while facing him as well.

"Gyms." The trainer shouted back a bit more sternly. As they were doing that the stranger to the planet as a whole caught something with her pointed ears.

'What is that noise? Are we under attack?' She questioned herself; unknown to her Nando saw her ears twitch and decided to fill her in along with calm the humans down a bit.

"Alright, keep that up then we won't be able to hear the forest sing." The bard said to them knowing that his statement would confuse the arguing duo.

"What do you mean?" Dawn questioned after the two of them stopped glaring at each other and was just looking around.

'So that's what it is.' Renamon thought, and with her sensitive ears she was able to sift through the creatures of the forest, and knew what they were thanks to borrowing the Pokedex on the way to the Sinnoh Region. There was: Kricketots, Bunearys, Burmys, Gastlys, Duskull, Misdreavus, Chimechos, Noctowls, Hoothoots, Woopers, and Quagsires.

"All the forest Pokemon are singing at once." Dawn said while listening to the sound of the forest.

"The forest…really does sing." The breeder of the group said also listening to the sound of the forest.

"It's gorgeous! I never noticed it before. Now I'll always here it." The coordinator said and felt that anger toward the trainer vanish as she listened to the sounds all around her.

"Yeah, sleeping outside isn't so bad after all. Right?" Ash said to her as he and Renamon were enjoying the sounds too.

"Yeah." Dawn said back to him with a short laugh. Nando heard them mellow out and watched as it continued from there, "I'm sorry, Ash." The new trainer said with a slightly hung head. "All the complaining I've done. I guess…things haven't been going so good for me and I've been taking it out all on you." She said after seeing that she had his attention.

"You know I haven't exactly been Mister Nice." He said back to her letting her know that she shouldn't take full credit over what has been going on.

"I promise I'll do a whole lot better." The human vowed to her friends which made the breeder smile that they were actually getting along.

"Yeah, me too." He said back to her, and the canine knew that this was Ash only being friendly; not to flirt with the new girl. "Ya know, right around when I left Pallet Town I saw a Flying Pokemon that was glowing like a rainbow." He said to Dawn which caught her interest, so he went on: "I'm sure it was a Ho-Oh." The boy then recalled over that moment in time. "It was like nothing I've ever seen before." He confessed while thinking, 'Excluding one yellow powerhouse.' And looking at the creature in question at the same time.

"Maybe that's what I saw." Dawn said to the boy who seemed interested in on what she had seen. "Back at Lake Verity." She said after realizing that he was interested. "Think of the Pokemon out there. There are so many: wonderful and strange." She said to them while remembering her moment of discovery, but a sound of a harp strum broke her out of it.

"What is usually hidden you now have the eyes in which to see. The forest song allows it to be a gift for you, and me. Let our hearts be grateful that the mysterious world of night Pokemon shows itself ever so selfishly." Nando said to them while strumming his Mew harp.

"Nando, I was wondering if you would battle me too." Ash said after standing from his sitting position.

"The honor will be all mine." He said back to the youth before him. "But we should do it in the morning." He added to his first comment.

"Sure thing." Ketchum said back and with that the group slept, and at the crack of dawn the whole lot of them headed to the same location as before, so both sides had more room to move. "I'm ready when ever you are." Ash said to the opponent with Renamon standing in front of him.

"The honor is all yours." The bard said in return.

"Just like last time it's all yours, Renamon." The trainer said and then watched as the vixen charged right at the plant creature.

"Budew, Bullet Seed if you will." The other requested and the attack was fired, but the graceful one was able to dodge it with ease.

"Power Paw!" She shouted back with glowing fists, and her right fist hit its mark. As the Grass type slid for a bit, and as it was slowly gaining ground back Dawn decided to celebrate the attack.

"Wow, a clean hit." She said and this time the foe knew what to do with that.

"Mega Drain, please." Nando requested to the creature before him.

'Yes, of course.' The creature said even though others couldn't get it. The thick green beam struck the vixen even though she tried to hold her ground by going on all fours, but it failed, and after the attack did it's thing the Digital Monster hit the ground.

"Renamon!" Ash shouted after seeing what just happened. They all then saw that the damage from Power Paw was gone.

"How did Budew heal?" The beginner questioned since she did not know all the moves of the trade…yet.

"You see when you use Mega Drain half the damage that's been done to your opponent goes back goes back to which Pokemon that made the move." Brock explained back to her, and prated that he did not confuse her.

"Renamon, are you alright?" Ash questioned to his old friend since as far as he knew did not know how much that can deal with a Digimon.

"I am alright, Ash. I've just never dealt with such a move." The battler said back while getting back to her feet. "Now as for that Pokemon - Diamond Storm!" She shouted and fired such a move which hit its mark.

"Way to go." The trainer of the Rookie shouted in praise.

"Thank you, Ash." She responded back to him; she was getting over getting praised for her fights. Their cheer was short lived as a bright light engulfed Budew after the beast shouted:

'It's time.' The others saw the light too, and the one that saw the light first was not surprised.

"What is this?" Nando questioned while watching the show.

"What's wrong with Budew?" Dawn questioned since she was worried the attack did more harm then anyone realize.

"Nothing. It's evolving." Brock explained to her.

"No way!" The girl shouted in alarm since this was the first time she had seen such a thing. When the light died down the evolved creature stood before them:

"Roselia." They heard it say, but the vixen heard, 'hi.' The transformation caught them all off guard.

"Roselia? Budew evolves into Roselia." Ash said aloud while still not getting it, but his partner was.

"That explains the red and blue pedals it tried to keep hidden." Renamon said aloud so the others could hear her.

"Awesome! I've never seen that!" The coordinator admitted to the other, but Nando decided to get the ball rolling.

"This is an interesting development to say the least." He told them calmly and then added, "Roselia if you please: Sunny Day." The creature did just that by firing two white beams from its hands to the sun. "Now if you please, SolarBeam." He requested and just like that the Grass type was absorbing the energy that was just sent skyward.

"Here it comes." Brock warned them of the attack.

"Renamon, you know what to do." The battling trainer said and then watched as his friend charged straight ahead.

"Fire please." Nando said and the plant did so while saying its name, but Renamon heard:

'You got it.' The beam was fired, but as soon as the ball was heading for the ground the Digimon jumped just right and used the explosion from the SolarBeam to propel herself into the air.

'I did not see this coming.' Nando thought as the opposing force was coming back down.

"Power Paw!" The yellow furred one shouted only this time added more force to this punch then the last one. As soon as fur his grass the creature hit the ground and was out like a light.

"Dear Roselia." The trainer of the Grass type said after his friend hit the ground.

"Roselia?" The plant said but the other fighter heard, 'Did I win.'

"Well, that's the end. It seems we lost." Nando said to them. Taking defeat so calmly.

"That means we won." Ash said after hearing the words of his honorable opponent.

"We?" Renamon questioned and when she saw Ash's nervous expression she smiled a bit before looking back over to the challenger.

"Brilliant effort. You deserve a nice, long rest." The cloaked one said after kneeling down to pick up Roselia and then recalled his partner. The man then brought his attention to the other travelers: "Now to Ash and Dawn." He said as he rose to full height. "I offer you my thanks. I finally know what I must do." He said to them and knew that they wanted to say something so he waited.

"Your going to try the Sinnoh League, aren't ya?" Ash questioned first.

"Your going after the Grand Festival, right?" Dawn questioned after that.

"I've decided to do both." He said to them and when he saw their confusion he went deeper, "I enjoyed battling you two so much I wouldn't give up on doing either one of them, and so for now I bid you farewell until we meet again." The four would accept that.

"Sounds great." The coordinator and the trainer said together, but the trainer added one more thing on his own.

"Till we meet again." The Digimon decided to say something as well.

"Yes, until then." The group of four left the group of one so they could continue on their run to Jubilife City, but Renamon was still having a slight problem, 'Get out of my head.' She thought since her subconscious was showing her Ash in Nando-like outfit and doing s the bard has done to woo her.


	7. Chapter 7

The energetic enforcer

"Team Rocket! Get back here!" Ash shouted to his traditional thugs who had made another attempt at his newest traveling partner - Renamon. The fact that they did so was that the boy nowadays was only humoring them, but this time they got him a bit angry. Fact was that they someway or another stuffed his dazzling vixen in a small pet carrier before taking fight.

"That dog doesn't belong to you." Dawn, the latest wreaked bike girl, shouted before getting a ticked look from the veterine trainer as he looked over his left shoulder. "Sorry, Ash, poor choice of words." She muttered back to him since after seeing what the two of them did to a robot she feared what he could do to fleash and blood.

'The least they could have done was spring for a bigger container.' The hero of Pallet thought as he and the other two continued to pursue them. Unlike the others James knew that these schemes of theirs was going to end badly, but he had to act as though they wouldn't.

"Never stopped us before. We're not changing our modus-operandi." He said to them with crossed arms. 'Even though we kind of already did.' He thought as he recalled the meaning of said word. Jessie heard her male…friend's comment and decided to add to it.

"Right. We laugh at the word enough." She said to them even though that she will have to ask James what is the meaning of the word that he just used since it did sound something that really described them. "What's mine is mine and what's your's is to." She added to her first comment in a confident way.

"Wobbuffet!" The blue creature shouted out at them which was his way of saying, "What she said." To end their side of the argument was Meowth.

"Forget, Fox-Face, and collect dog stamps." The white furred one said to them as he stood on the ledge of their basket with his hands to his waist. No sooner then the feline said that Ketchum was suddenly assaulted of images of standard dogs namely - Dalmatian, Irish Setter, Afghan, Rough Collie, and two Whippets, but he shook those thoughts away no problem.

'Enough of this.' Ash thought as he grabbed the ball containing his newest flyer. "Starly, I choose you." He shouted just before throwing and releasing his friend.

"Ready." The creature said even though most of them heard him say his name. The flyer enjoyed the feel of the wind on feathers again, but right now the bird knew that he had a job to do.

"Starly, cut the rope holding Renamon's cage with your Wing Attack." He shouted out to his friend. The creature saw his target and headed in that direction at top speed, for his current form.

"You got it." The flying fighter said while going in that direction. The human male on the opposing side heard and knew that this was coming, and as much as he'd prefer to just let him have her back he didn't want Jessie to know that he had given up of being part of this whole thing.

"As if. Let's ask Carnivine for an alternate opinion." James said as he released his old chum from his Poke`ball.

"I'm free." The botanical big mouth shouted and then instead of going after the bird he instead bit down on his old friend's head. The second his teeth were on the man's head they all had something to say about it:

"Hey! Go bite on someone else's head." James said before sitting down since Jessie had taken one of his legs into her arms, and was using one of her own feet on the plant creature's head.

"James' hair isn't dental floss." The female of the group explained to the latest biter while trying to make it stop.

"You're biting the wrong airhead." The cat said as he was trying to lift the grass type's upper jaw off of his friend's head. When it wasn't working with minimal effort they all tried to get the friendly fern off with all that they had.

'I get it.' The plant thought and released his grip on his old friend. The motion happened so suddenly that it jossled the basket.

"What the!" The attacking bird said in his language as the balloon was pulled down a bit causing the attacker's beak to his the head; it burst on impact. "Oh, crap!" The bird shouted after being blown away from the hole.

"Starly!" The trainer shouted to his blown away friend before seeing the look of fear in the fox's eyes.

'No, I can't be separated from him again.' She thought as she looked at him. The kitsune was so concerned with her old friend that she forgot about another one of her tricks, so she stayed in the pet carrier.

"Renamon, no." The hero shouted out before going ape for her - leaping and grabbing onto one of the branches, and swung that way to get to her. The balloon and those inside of it landed in an opening with a lake, but their crash caused one creature to awaken from a nap.

"Huh? What was that noise?" A green, plant-like turtle said in his language before walking from the forest edge to the clearing. 'What a strange creature.' The new Pokemon thought as he made his way to the container which held a yellow dog. "There you go." The creature said after seeing that the door's lock was only a button.

"Thank you." Renamon said as she crawled out of her prison before standing up, and stretched for a bit. 'I find it amusing that these wild Pokemon are nicer than the tamed ones I've met.' The digital life form thought as she looked down at her rescuer.

"You're not relieved of duty, foxy-friend." A familiar voice said to the two of them. The duo turned to see the three responsible for her delayed time with her partner.

"Now, Carnivine sink your teeth into someone else." The male human ordered while pointing to the one that caught her.

"You got it boss." The plant said back even though the humans only heard the creature's name. The target in question got into a fighting position, but soon saw the new guy stand up for her.

"First, you have to get by me." He said to them and stood before the humanoid: ready to defend her.

"You're a Turtwig, aint ya?" The cat questioned even though the answer was obvious to anyone. The creature in question then ordered to the human talking creature that was with the humans knowing that he was going to translate for him. "Oh, please, just cause you say we're trespassing on your turf don't mean we're looking at the same stupid you are." The cat shouted in anger since he hated that the new guys had to act tougher then him.

'Guy's not listening, so maybe this will help.' The turtle thought before shouting out something to the creature before him, and stomped his upper right foot for good measure.

"Yeah. So, what if you blow your top? That leafy head of yers doesn't scare me a bit." The cat said back while trying to be tough in front of the new guy. His human assosiates decided to back up his claim despite the fact that they knew nothing of this creature.

"I'll say." The male said before getting down to business. "Carnivne, Bullet Seed." James ordered and was pleased that it was obeyed. The two the attack was aimed at dodged it, but it was the Pokemon that charged at them.

'Okay, now I'm mad.' Turtwig thought as he charged at the two, and could see the boastful one show signs of being worried.

"Now we got problems. Wakin up a Turtwig from a snooze is askin for trouble." The cat warned them as they all watched the creature leap into action by tackling the one responsible for the attack. The fly trap flew back into his team causing the lot of them to fly away.

"Talk about an early exit." The red head said to the others as they were flying away. Her human friend decided to speak of the blight he had before their crash.

"Hardly worth the bite marks on my brain." He said even though he knew the teeth didn't go that far, but he had to make a point somehow.

"We're blasting off again." They all shouted before going out of sight. What had happened actually got the Rookie's attention.

'If he was trained correctly, there's no telling what he could do with that kind of power.' She thought as she saw her rescuer stand triumphantly over what he had just done.

"Renamon." Ash cried out, closer than he was the first time this separation happened. Said creature turned her head in the direction the voice was coming from, and saw that he…and two others coming into the same clearing at the two of them. "I'm glad to see that you are uninjured." He said to her in an honest tone.

"I'm alright. A little stiff, but that can be healed with a fight." She answered back to him, and he knew that she meant that she wanted to test his aura powers after seeing them in work back with that robot.

"Someone else to hurt." The defender said as he took a few steps in between them, and got ready to fight these three new challengers.

"Wow! It's a Turtwig." Dawn said in awe after seeing a creature she saw at the beginning of her journey. The two knew that she was right since her Professor introduced them to the remaining starter.

"Sure is. Professor Rowin said it was a starter here in Sinnoh." Ash informed his traveling buddy before reaching for his Pokedex to give them more information.

"Turtwig - the tiny leaf Pokemon: It's shell is made up of Earth and when it absorbs water it becomes harder." The machine said to them before the raven haired hero put it away.

"That's really rare. Seeing a wild Turtwig." The breeder informed them since he spoke from experience. It was he and three others that found a Mudkip location for Hoen's starting trainers.

"This is my chance." Dawn said to them since there was a part of her that wanted all three starters for herself. "Piplup, use Peck!" She said while unleashing her starting Pokemon on the wild starting creature.

"You got it." The penguin said with a glowing beak, and ran right for the green being in question. The turtle was not afraid and countered it with Razor Leaf. The three humans were surprised that this one countered so quickly.

"Quick, dodge it." The latest biker said and they watched as the bird stopped, and rolled over behind a nearby stone for cover. As the attack continued one leaf landed in the bush beside the humans causing a familiar Pokemon - Oddish.

"Oh, what hit me." The Grass/Poison type muttered while stumbling about. They all saw that the creature unleashed a blue powder into the air. The trainer saw how close the plant was to his partner so he tried to intervene.

"Renamon." Ash shouted as he ran over to her to, respectfully, tackle her to the ground, but even with his aid the both of them got a nose full of Sleep Powder causing both of them to fall asleep. "Time for my nap." He muttered while unconsciously snuggled in close to her.

"What happened to them!" Dawn said in alarm at the slumbering duo before her. Brock decided to tell her even though he was not surprised that such a thing happened.

"They got a snoot full of Oddish's Sleep Powder." He said before watching as the turtle grabbed the kitsune's tail with his mouth, and ran away. "Hey, wait!" The breeder shouted before giving chase.

"Turtwig?" The coordinator questioned before going after her friend. In the brush was a woman that was seeing the whole thing and decided to reveal herself to the others.

"Mercy me." She said after the two gave chance. "Children?" She questioned to the two which caused them to stop and turn to face her. She filled the two in on who she was and of the Pokemon that dog-napped their friend. The former gym leader picked up the trainer and carried him to the woman's home. "Drink this, dear." The woman as she poured a tea of sorts into his mouth once the older boy layed him on the couch.

"Huh?" Ash questioned after feeling his strength returning and the first thing that he saw was a peaceful looking woman above him. "Where am I?" He questioned out of concern while sitting up right. "Renamon?" He questioned and was expecting her to appear out of no where. "Where's Renamon?" He questioned while placing his feet on the floor as he still sat on the green sofa.

"It looks like my herb tea sure did it's job." The older woman said to the boy beside her as he continued to scan as much as he could.

"Huh?" Ketchum questioned since he was still out of the loop over what was going on right now.

"Forgive me. My name's Clara." She said to him as she used a polite and even tone.

"Hi, I'm Ash, nice to meet you." He said in return since he believed it was the right thing to say at the time. Dawn saw his confusion and decided to elaberate for him.

"This is Clara's house." The young coordinator said to the confused youth.

"Did you have a nice nap?" Brock questioned to his friend in a mocking and serious question style. Clara could still see the uneasyness in the boy's eye of not being near this Renamon person.

"You have nothing to fear. Turtwig's a good Pokemon. I'm sure your Renamon is fine." The woman assured him and could tell that he was a bit more confused than before.

"I don't get it." Dawn said to the others before adding. "You know that Turtwig?" The others now wondered the same thing since she knew how this creature liked to operate.

"Heaven's yes. Turtwig and I are old friends." She said to the young lady. This caused the hero to smile and be amazed over hearing that.

"Wow! Really?" He exclaimed and questioned to her temporarily forgetting about his canine companian, and focused more on her tale. Deep in the forest Turtwig had released the fox's tail, letting her just sleep for a moment as he stood guard.

'She might be hungry.' The grass themed one thought and rammed his head on a nearby tree causing a piece of fruit to fall and hit her on the head.

"What was that for?" She moaned while rubbing the top of her head. She then saw the green turtle walk over to her and place the food that hit the vixen's head on the ground. "Is this for me?" She questioned while picking it up with one hand.

"Of course it is." He said back to her. The kitsune was weary of it at first, but after a nibble she enjoyed the taste and started to eat it. While the Digimon was enjoying her meal Ash continued to listen to Clara's story.

"Turtwig is a little helper, you see? Turtwig is always coming to the aid of people and Pokemon, and has been for quit some time." She said to them, and even though the trainer liked someone with those qualities it did not stop him from thinking about his old friend.

"So, Clara, does that mean Turtwig is your Pokemon?" Dawn questioned since that seemed what a trained Pokemon would do.

"No, dear. Land sakes, I'm plenty busy working in my herb garden without the time it being a trainer or coordinator." She answered to the youth before adding how she met the Grass type. "Truth is: Turtwig showed up here one day out of no where. The poor dear looked exhausted, so I whipped up some dinner and made sure Turtwig got plenty of sleep." The others liked the way she handled said creature.

"Well, if I were Turtwig, I'd never want to leave after that." Brock said since that was how their Pokemon felt about them due to their display of kindness. The woman before him sighed since she liked his honesty.

"Yes, Turtwig has been here ever since. Helping everything and everyone including me." Clara said to the three to let them know that what the breeder said was true. "All from a simple twist of fate." She added to her first comment. "In no time at all the Pokemon around here have made Turtwig their leader." She said to them not knowing that the plant was going to show his guest what Clara was talking about.

'This is quite good.' The vixen thought as she was now eating some smaller fruit. 'Turtwig isn't half bad company.' Renamon thought before picking up an argument between two creatures.

"What now?" Turtwig questioned before looking up and saw a Mankey and Geodude fighting over a piece of food. Wanting to settle thins on his turf the first stage creature charged at the tree they were on and head butted it.

"It would seem those two want that piece of food." Renamon said to her new friend as they watched the fighting type and the rock type continue their squabble. Without another word Turtwig tackled the piece of food away.

'These two are starting to annoy me.' He thought out of anger as the two to either side of him shouted the same thing, 'that was my food and he stole it.' Out of no where a dust cloud appeared around them.

'He may need a hand.' The Digimon thought while walking to the fight, but stood to the side, and waited if he needed help. After a few moments of shouting the dust cleared and it was Turtwig that stood triumphant. 'He would do well on Ash's team.' She thought not knowing that her…partner was still at the woman's house: still listening to her story.

"But at times Turtwig gets carried away. It's a lot responsibility for the dear." She said to them and all could tell that the woman did not want the creature to suffer some sort of mental strain of maintaining peace in this area.

"Sounds like the pressure's pretty high." Dawn stated to her new friend since to her it did sound like a lot of work. "The Turtwig that I saw in Professor Rowin's lab was totally laid back and so relaxed." She added as she recalled how the creature in question were polar opposites in personality.

"Pokemon are like people: with more kinds of personalities than you can believe." Brock explained as he recalled Professor Oak saying such things when they stopped by his house before the Indigo League fights.

"Brock's right, but I still can't figure out why that Turtwig was trying to attack us." Ash said in confusion even though he was sort of having a Bulbasaur flashback at the moment.

"Well, I know I wasn't there, but if I were to guess I'd say Turtwig was trying to protect Renamon." She said to them even though she only watched as Brock and Dawn ran after her old chum.

"Of course! Turtwig must have thought we were trying to do Renamon harm." Brock said and cursed himself for not picking that up sooner.

"For real?" Dawn questioned since that still didn't add up. She knew that none of the three of them would raise a hand to that fighter in that angered fashion. It was then the trainer's mind was made up as he stood up from the couch.

"I'll be right back." He said to them before adding, "I'm going to go out and get Renamon." The Pallet protector was determined to find his old friend, and make sure that she was safe. "We'll talk it out. Once I tell Turtwig the truth it'll be fine." He informed then with a confident smile on his face.

"There that should be enough food." Turtwig said to the two once his opponents regained consciousness and saw that there were two piles of different food before them. The two said 'thanks' and with happy expressions the duo left their suppliers.

"At least that mess was easily resolved." The Digital one said since she used her speed just like Turtwig used his head to gather all of that food. "Hmm?" She questioned once a yawn was made and the fighting fox watched as the Grass type decided to take a nap.

"Renamon." Ash said as he and the others saw her standing there a little ways in front of them.

"Ash, what kept you?" Renamon questioned casually not knowing her voice woke her new friend up. Just like their first meeting the enforcer stood before the taller creature glaring at the new comers.

"We thought we'd find you two here." Dawn said to the two of them; not scared at all by the Grass class' tough act.

"It's great how Clara knows Turtwig." Brock said calmly as well since he too was unfazed by the creature's need to defend. Ash walked over by himself since believed going alone would help things.

'Oh, man. This is gonna hurt.' Ketchum thought before being tackled to the ground by the enforcer of the location.

"Ash!" Brock said in alarm as he and Dawn jogged over to see if the down trainer needed any help.

"That was some smack." Ash said since it has been a while since he had felt a physical attack that did not have an elemental or psychic feel to it.

"Are you okay?" Dawn questioned not knowing that the hero before her has survived far worse. The team saw that the turtle got some distance after his tackle and was preparing to do it again.

"You can't be serious?" Renamon questioned as she stood in between them.

"Of course I am. These guys will hurt you just like those other two." Turtwig said to them even though the humans had no idea what he was saying.

"Turtwig isn't listening to Renamon in the slightest." Brock pointed out, and the other two noticed it as well.

"I know some people like that." Dawn pointed out, meaning their stalkers that refused to listen to reason even though Ash and Brock have defeated them time and time again.

"Would you stop this and listen to him for once." Renamon shouted to the creature while bonking him on the head with a light punch. The creature turned to see what she meant before listening to the human.

"Renamon is my best friend. See, we were only trying to help. Team Rocket - they're the bad guys that took Renamon away from me, we're trying to stop them." Ash said to the little creature and he saw that the Grass type seemed confused over the news so he turned to his new friend.

"He is right, little one." She said and saw his face went from confused to shock. In that state he backed up to the tree and began a rapid nodding motion.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." He said even though he knew that humans did not know he was saying the creature prayed that his action will show them what he was saying.

"Guess Turtwig is sorry for what happened." Brock said to the rest of his friends since he got the jist over what he was doing.

"A little…too sorry, don't you think." The coordinator said since it was just a minor misunderstanding she was not sure why the Pokemon would go to this extreme. Ash put on his hat, which was knocked off when he fell, and decided to make the protector feel better.

"Don't worry about it, Turtwig." He said after walking over and placing his right hand on the shell. "Hey, I'm really grateful to you for saving Renamon." He added to his first comment since he really was grateful to the local.

"He is right. I would never have gotten out of that cage if it was not for your help." The yellow furred one said; also trying to cheer the creature up. The two watch as he raised his eyes to face the human, and was about to say something, but was interrupted by an injured Linoone.

"A Linoone, but what's wrong?" Ketchum questioned as he saw the collapsed creature. The others were also confused at the injured arrival from behind the bush.

"A Linoone?" The new girl questioned before activating her Pokedex.

"Linoone, the Rushing Pokemon - When it spots its prey it runs after it in a straight line. Though able to run over sixty miles per hour it is unable to turn." The machine said to her as Ash and Renamon went over to the creature in question.

"Brock, we've got to help." Ash said to the injured one, now resting in his arms. The breeder heard him, and knelt down to see if there was anything he could do.

"Hmm? This Linoone really smashed into something hard." He pointed out while not noticing the circling eyes from the fox for stating the obvious. "We'd better hurry." He insisted to his friend. Without missing a beat the hero stood up while still holding onto the creature.

"Right. Let's head back to Clara's house, quick." He said before turning and racing back to the elder's home. 'I knew I saw something when I was testing my aura, but I wasn't sure what it was.' He thought while giving a passing glass to the injured one.

"These herbs are perfect for healing all sorts of wounds and bruises." Brock said after taking the injured monster from his friend, sat down on a backyard seat, and fed him some herbs that Clara gave to him. "You'll be better real soon." He said to the creature.

"That's good." The Normal type said while enjoying having it's belly rubbed. The others were also sitting around the small white table with him; watching as he went to work.

"Real soon is right. You sure know your stuff." Dawn said in astonishment since seeing this older man due what he does was truly impressive in her opinion.

"You certainly do." Clara said before adding, "You're quite the Pokemon healer." He felt humbled by what she said, but he had to be honest to the both of them.

"Don't thank me. Those wonderful herbs of your's did the trick." Brock said back to her while looking at the garden beside them. Ketchum looked over to a tree where Renamon was just leaning against it with her arms crossed and her eyes closed.

"I'm glad we found Linoone so quick." Ash said while looking away from his partner to face the others. He got happy praise by the Pokemon on the table along with a simple head nod from the Rookie.

"Intriguing." Jessie said while looking through the pariscope as she and two others sat in their Magikarp sub. "Team Rocket, Turtwig." She said; explaining over what she had found.

"If that Turtwig had no problems decking us. It'll make Turtwig soup outta those dummies." Meowth said as he was station on the furthest set of peddles.

"Renamon and Turtwig the world will be our Cloyster." James said to them not believing that he was in the middle, but he tried to be a gentleman about it and not touch or look at his female partner's rump.

"Sailing through the Sinnoh region soon our legend will be legion." The three of them said even though they had a feeling that it was going to end they still had to try.

Yes, but not without a beating first." Their blue friend said along with their entry level creature who used the same statement as his friend. On the surface Ash again tried to use aura without the gloves and saw something in the lake, but didn't know for sure.

"Let's launch this legend today." She said to her male friends while recalling the scope.

"Maam, yes, maam." The two said and helped her peddle the devvice closer to shore. The others were enjoying Brock's cooking while waiting for the Normal type to feel better.

"Anytime you cook something that needs eating: just ask." Dawn said as she spooned up some more vegetable soup for herself.

"Please, Brock my boy, is there anything you can't do?" Clara questioned to the man across from her, because as she can see he seems to be the complete package - knowledge on human and Pokemon food, healer, and good about keeping personal appearance in tip-top shape.

"Well, I'm glad you're enjoying it. There's lots more so dig in." The breeder said to the all of them. Ash decided how everyone off the table was doing with their food.

"Hey, Linoone, good food, huh?" Ketchum questioned and the creature took his head away from the bowl to give him an answer.

"It is very good." Renamon said as she ate it. Brock said to her as he prepared her food that he was basing off of a Pokemon called Vulpix - a creature she wished to meet one day.

"Great food." The rushing class said while looking at the human with a smile. Turtwig saw that the creature's food was gone, so he grabbed his dish with the tip of his mouth and pushed it over to his fellow Pokemon.

"There, have my food." The enforcer said with a smile.

"Thank you." Linoone answered back before digging back into the food. The trainer saw the act of kindness and decided to say something about it.

"You know what? You're nice after all." He said and received a nod from the mon in question. "But don't let it go to your head." He continued to speak, but saw the confused look on the grass type so he added, "Or mine." While pointing at his hat.

'Oh man! That's right!' Turtwig thought as he flashed back of how quickly he attacked the human without hearing his side why the canine was caged. 'I almost forgot about that with the friendly atmosphere around here.' He thought with a sulking head.

"It was just a little joke." He said after a minor laugh to the creature in question. "Hey, Turtwig, you need to eat too." The trainer said while getting a ladle full of soup and poured it into the empty bowl. "Here you go." The human said once the food was in the container.

"You're nice." The creature shouted while jumping into the air and clamped onto the trainer's head causing Renamon, Brock, and Dawn to become concerned after seeing this.

"Turtwig, cut it out! Let go of my head." He shouted while trying to pull the creature from his head without damaging his skull. His attempts were stalled after hearing the woman laugh.

"Turtwig is such a scamp." She said with her hand over her mouth as to not offend the trainer in any way.

"Scamp?" Dawn and Brock said as one in confusion while their friend just looked at her oddly. She heard them and decided to clear the air for them:

"When Turtwig bites you it's a sign that Turtwig really likes you." She explained to them. They heard her, but what was said did not make any sense to them.

"So, does Turtwig do that to you too." The coordinator questioned since Clara did say that she kept an eye on the head biting Pokemon.

"Of course." She answered, and knew that actions spoke better than words some time, so she added, "Come here Turtwig." The moment she said that the turtle released Ash's head and leapt to his friend.

"Here I come!" He shouted while flying over to her.

"Clara!" Brock shouted in alarm.

"Look out!" Ketchum shouted as well, and was about to have the Digimon take the hit only to watch as the Grass type was stopped by a thick twig. To show them that she was okay Clara angled her friend away, and that was when they saw the turtle biting into a branch.

"Amazing." Dawn said in awe over how fast the woman pulled out such a deffensive tool. "That was like a great combination." She added while still shocked over what she saw.

"I'm sure with a little practice you can do the same." The woman said with a smile as he friend was still chewing on the stick in her hand. The group liked the sound of that and Ketchum knew it would be a lot less painful than letting the creature do it when ever he pleases.

'Now what?' Renamon thought as she felt a plunger on her butt and saw that Turtwig was in the same boat. No sooner that the rubber tools hit the two of them felt themselves being pulled to the lake.

"Renamon." Ash shouted before thinking, 'The slight shimmer that I saw was them.' The trainer watched as his partner and new friend were sealed in a glass pill shaped container. "Turtwig. Renamon." Ash shouted at the floating container, but after an eruption of water a metal Magikarp appeared before them.

"Who in the name of Pokemon are you?" Clara questioned to the three rising from the top of the machine. With that they began their chanting, but Ash was still confused why his stalkers went with a small container even though they should know by now his partner was much larger.

"That's some catch. You can't get any fresher than this." James said as he looked down and saw that the creatures were still holding steady.

"Why don't you guys just give it up?" Dawn said since dealing with these guys once a day was as much as she could handle.

"That hat of yours is too tight otherwise you would remember what I said was mine is mine and what's yours is too." Jessie said while seeming board of the new girl's rant.

"We got two Power creatures perched in a portable pouch." The feline said to her before they all ducked into the machine and sped away. The two captives shot out cries of alarm and worry to the four humans before being taken away.

"Turtwig! Renamon!" He shouted before leaping into the water and swimming after them.

"What are you doing?" Dawn questioned out of alarm since she did not like how this human often took these kinds of risks.

"Dawn, get Piplup." Brock said to her since he knew his old friend was going to need aquatic assistance.

"Piplup: go help Ash get Renamon and Turtwig." Dawn ordered after getting the right ball for the right task. No sooner that it was summoned that the flightless bird followed after the human.

"Oh, dear, it seems Team Rocket plans to escape by using the river." Clara said to them as they watched the human and Pokemon follow after a dorsal fin. Brock then acted as a second in command when his friend is playing hero.

"Then, let's go after them." The breeder said to the both of them. After receiving nods from the both of them they all headed out. Inside the sub the trio was celebrating their success of their capture.

"Aah, the sea life." James said while counting down until Ash showed up to spoil the other's fun.

"Strollin along in this worthless tub." Meowth added to his friend's comment.

"Yep, you can say that again." Wobbuffet said to his fellow Pokemon's comment. Jessie looked at a monitor preprogrammed to a rear camera and saw that it was the one person they did not want to see.

"Twerp on screen." She shouted to the others in alarm. This got a surprised gasp by both of them as they watched him get closer and closer to the container. Outside the two creatures were happy to see the hero of this dimension come for them.

"I've got you." He said while wrapping his right arm around the container as an anchor for himself. The ones inside watched as Piplup also was near their prize and the female thief could not have that.

"Give it some gas, guys." She ordered to them, and no sooner that she said that then it was answered. "Peddle to the medal." She added to her first order.

"We're full speed." The two males said and angled their vessel downward. This caused the ones on the outside to follow its lead.

'This is bad!" Ketchum thought as he and Piplup were submerged in the water. Despite to new field he could see the worry in his partner's eyes, and he could not have that.

'Blast. If I had the room I'd smash this glass with my head.' Turtwig thought as all he could feel was fur all around him. It was then Ketchum concentrated his aura as a shield around his right fist, and began to pound on the container.

'Please work.' The hero thought as he continued until finally after the tenth swing his fist went through. Now with the container damaged the fox stretched as far as she could, and the pill box cracked open like an egg.

'Good job.' She thought before looking at his left hand which held her Digivice, and with that she knew what to do. "Renamon digivolve to…" She said before transforming and finished with, "Kyubimon." Since her flames were mystical in nature so the four legged fox knew her attack would work. "Dragon Wheel!" No sooner the move hit an explosion occurred.

"It's no good." The woman said to the two youths before her as she was trying to catch her breath.

"Clara?" The breeder questioned out of concern.

"Are you alright?" Dawn questioned when the two of them back peddled back to her. She did not wish to worry them, so she explained herself in the best way:

"I can't take another step." She told them. At that moment the explosion between Digimon attack and Pokemon prop.

"It's Ash." Brock said aloud while Dawn spoke the creature's names. Ketchum landed belly first followed by Turtwig and Piplup who rolled off his back, but the canine sat on her partner in traditional dog style.

"It's so good to see that you are all okay." Clara said to her new friends, and watched as the nine tailed one got up and walked off of her friend.

"You were great Piplup." Dawn said, praising her partner for staying by Ash's side throughout the whole thing. Wanting not to seem like a bad guy Ketchum decided to do the same.

"Yeah, Piplup, thank you," He said after standing up from his fall. "And how are you two holding up." He questioned to the turtle and fox behind him even though he could tell that they were just fine.

"I am well, Ash, and I apologize for landing on you." Kyubimon said to him while the turtle didn't look so hot.

"I'm exhausted but…give me a minute." Turtwig said to them while looking to the sky. Once he had done that the Grass type Pokemon then activated one of it's special abilities.

"What's that?" Dawn questioned as she and the others saw the turtle's two leaves on the top of its head light up.

"It's called Synthesis." Clara said to the young one, but that still didn't fully answer her question.

"I've never heard of it." The coordinator admitted to the others.

"Synthesis is a move that allows a Pokemon to heal fast." Brock explained since he often read up on the latest attacks weather they be for offense or defense. When the light faded from the creature's body they could all tell that he was back to fighting fit.

"Well, what do you know? It really works." Dawn said to them in astonishment, and wanted to catch a Pokemon that has that ability for herself. Their tranquil time was interrupted by the Rocket Stalkers.

"Pardon me if I could care less." Jessie said with a tone to make them believe she was physically ill over what was going on. "You make me sick. Listen to the Twerpish dragging." She continued once she had their attention.

"You dweebs think we're gonna let you off easy then think again." Meowth shouted to them. James just gave the two of them a confused look, but they didn't care.

'You'd think they would learn to accept defeat gracefully.' James thought, but since he did not want to seem like a deserter the trainer stood up and said, "Right. We'll lose when I say so." This caused their Psychic type to speak out.

"Yeah, he's right." The blue one said. Not liking where this was going the red head decided to take the lead.

"Alley-Oop." Jessie shouted as she and three others leapt from the boat and landed on sure. The heroes, and allies, stood on one side of the open field and Jessie and James to the other.

"Alright. Enough is enough." He said to them with a hero tone. The creatures around him got ready for a fight. This did not sit well with the female since she hated the kind of people that stood for what Ash is all about.

"More Twerp Intolerance!" She shouted before getting out a Pokeball and summoned, "Seviper, Go." Her partner did not want to be kept from the action.

"Carnivine, you too." He cheered, but sadly the plant reacted just like in the basket: turned about and started to bite his partner's head. "Stop it, I like my long hair." He said while trying to get the affectionate one off of him.

"Seviper, use Poison Tail." Jessie called out.

"And you use Bite, Carnivine: Go." James called out, and that was precicly what the two did for them. The four legged vixen was about to do attack until she and the others watched Turtwig go. He Tackled the snake, and bit the flytrap.

"No way." The two said together; not believing that an entry level creature was beating both of their creatures without any help from Ash or the others.

"Yes, way!" Dawn countered to them while praising her friend for his effort. The enforcer then landed on the ground, and tossed the Grass type back to them. The feline was startled, but still okay.

"You and all your dumb teeth." Meowth complained to their plant as he stood on Wobbuffet's head. This action angered the red head even more so.

"Right. Seviper, Poison Tail once more." Jessie said to her stand-by snake.

"Carnivine, Bite, but their head's - not mine." James ordered to his partner. The two said that they were ready and then charged straight ahead.

"Kyubimon, your turn." He said to his Champion who ran straight ahead, and called forth the same move as before.

"Dragon Wheel!" The attack consumed both creatures causing them to collide with the sideline characters, and send them into orbit. After spinning the Digimon heard their bickering, but knew that it was of little importance.

"All right!" Ash cheered while his partner just nodded of her own accomplishment. Turtwig on the other hand turned to face the trainer, and happily bit on his head. "Haven't we had enough biting for one day. I like you too, but this is nuts." He said to his new friend. The group headed back to Clara's home for another small visit before they left.

"Thank you for everything, Clara." Dawn said to their new friend as they stood outside her home.

"You all take care." She said to the group of young travelers.

"And you do the same." Brock said since he really did like her company and would like to visit sometime again. Ash decided to say good-bye to the four legged powerhouse who finally let go of his head.

"You take it easy, Turtwig." He said to the Grass type in a calm voice.

"Yes, stay strong." Renamon, who changed back since there was no need for Kyubimon to be around, said to the creature before the four of them walked off. As they left the elder heard a moan from her old friend, and knew what the Pokemon wanted.

"Yes, I know. You want to go." She said to the small creature. Said Pokemon heard her and had to ask, 'Are you really sure?' in his native tongue. "Of course. I'll be just fine by myself. You go with them." She said to him with a gentle smile.

'If that's what she wants.' The Pokemon thought before chasing after them. He was able to reach them, and even get in front of them.

"Turtwig?" The hero questioned to the return of this area's Grass class.

"What's wrong?" Dawn questioned and could only hope that everything was okay. She saw them stare at the creature and decided to explain it to them.

"Turtwig wants to go with you." Clara said while walking up behind them. Ash turned to face her with a confused look on his face. "You shouldn't be surprised. Turtwig likes you." She said to him, giving the young man a reason for the creature's attitude.

"You bet. Course you can come along." He said to the new member of their family. The turtle got up on his hind legs and started to punch his upper legs together.

"But first things first - Turtwig wants to battle you." Clara said to them: explaining what he was trying to say to them. He liked that idea, and it would be a good way of showing this new Grass type that he is worthy of such a powerhouse.

"Sounds good to me." The native of Pallet Town said back to her. Once they found an open area Renamon and Turtwig did battle to one another. "Renamon, just like before this fight is all yours." Ash said and after a nod the vixen used her speed to get in close and then slammed Turtwig with her right fist.

"Try these." The opponent shouted while tossing out Razor Leaf at her. The Digimon countered it with:

"Power Paw!" She shouted and punched down everyone of the leaves, but did not see the Tackle attack which got her in the gut. The others watched as the fox scooted back while staying on her feet.

"What was that?" Dawn questioned after seeing that strange combo.

"Turtwig used Razor Leaf as a distraction so he could use a Tackle attack. That was some strategy." Brock said to the two beside him, but he knew that it will take more than that to stop Renamon.

'Pretty good, but not good enough.' The Rookie thought before going to the air to use her trademark move. "Diamond-." THat was as far as she went due to the turtle biting her tail, only this time hard.

"I will never let you go." He said to her despite having a mouth full of fur. She looked at him for a moment and then at a tree. It was then she used her speed to get as close as possible, and then slammed her tail into that mighty piece of lumber.

'Looks like you need to look up the word - never." She taunted as he released her from his grip. "Diamond Storm!" She shouted and launched her attack before he had a chance to recover.

"Go, PokeBall." Her partner shouted while throwing another red/white ball. The creature went in and the center circle started blinking red.

"So, that's it. Turtwig's Ash's." Dawn questioned since this was her first time seeing such a thing.

"We'll find out." Brock said to her, and after a few more shakes the red dot went away. Ketchum picked up the ball and decided to celetrate.

"Hey, I just caught a - Turtwig!" He shouted with praise and got a simple nod from his partner for his trouble, but she was happy that he was happy.

"Ash, you, and Renamon, did it." Brock said as he and the others jogged over to him. Ketchum turned to face his friends with a big smile on his face.

"Wow, that's what it's like to catch a Pokemon." Dawn said, just plain stunned over what she saw. "How cool is that?!" She said out of excitement, and was eager to see if she could catch a Pokemon on her own.

"Promise me you'll take good care of Turtwig, won't you, dear? It means a lot." Clara questioned to her young friend even though he already knew the answer.

"Right." He said back to her and with that the group carried on to their first big city stop.


	8. Chapter 8

Trusting a turtle

It was an average day for Ash and his crew as they decided to sit down for a little lunch. 'Ah, there you are.' The five limbed monkey thought as he spotted the perfect piece of fruit. His actions did not go unnoticed since one of his friends saw what he did.

"Is that for me?" A blue penguin asked in his native tongue while looking up at the purple simian while dancing a little jig. The answer was a raspberry with a pulled eyelid.

'Now, time to disappear.' Aipom thought as he jumped, but accidentally head butted a tree branch causing him to release the fruit his tail hand was holding. The water fowl saw this, caught the falling food, and ate it.

"That was good." Piplup said aloud not knowing that the plucker heard the comment and decided to do something about it.

"You stole my food!" The monkey shouted in anger to the thief after jumping down from the trees.

"What are you talking about? It feel from the tree, and I caught it." The penguin counter commented while glaring at the accuser. A strolling Rock type and Grass type saw the commotion and decided to stop it.

"Now everyone breath. Just breath." Turtwig said to the two creatures before him in his best calm tone. Neither of them ruining their fight so as a tag team they slapped the turtle toward a tree.

"Trouble! Trouble! Trouble!" Bosly shouted while pacing in place. The two ignored him, and focused on beating each other up. Aipom unleashed a Swift attack while Piplup countered it with Bubble causing a mighty explosion.

"Did you guys hear that?" Dawn questioned to the others after hearing the rumbling.

"Someone might need our help. Come on." Ash called out causing the four at camp to head toward the explosion with Renamon in the lead thanks to the trees. "Hey, you two - cut it out." Ash ordered after coming to the conflict of a Water and Normal Poke`mon.

"Stop your fighting right now." Dawn said to the bickering brothers, and the grass turtle, who was finally coming to after the two in one hit, decided to help her with that by jumping into the cloud.

"Stop!" He shouted but was answered back with a Focus Punch from Aipom and a Fury Attack from Piplup. 'If that's the way you want it…' Turtwig thought before unleashing a savage Razor Leaf attack which stopped the fighting quickly.

"You can't treat my Piplup that way." Dawn defended - believing that Ash's Poke`mon was only defending himself, and not even realized that Aipom was also struck.

"Hold on. Turtwig was only breaking them up." Brock informed them as he could see that fact as clear as day.

"Of course! Turtwig, thank you." Ash exclaimed and thanked which caused the Grass type in question to jump up and bite him on the head.

'He's so kind to his Poke`mon.' Renamon thought as she watched that happy moment between trainer and turtle, but sensed a dark vibe approaching them, so she got off her tree limb, and stood next to the others.

"Pathetic." A voice said out to them causing the humans and Poke`mon to turn and face the voice.

"It's Paul." Ash pointed out to the others which he only smirked in response of hearing his name. "Boy, Paul, you sure like showing up out of no where, don't ya." Ketchum commented to the purple haired man before him.

"I'm just out here doing a little training. To get ready for my Oreburgh City Gym battle." Paul confessed to the group before him. After realizing that he was telling the truth Ash decided to do the same.

"What a coincidence I am too." The hat wearing hero commented while watching the trainer carefully - no telling what this guy will do to win.

"Am I seeing things or is that Turtwig one of your new Poke`mon?" Paul questioned to the turtle at Ash's feet.

"Yeah, you're not seeing things. We're talking strong." Ash stated and the creature in question happily nodded to the comment.

"Doesn't look like much to me." The opponent said since he knew that if it was raised by Ash - it was nothing for him to worry about. The crack got both Ash and Turtwig's attention.

"Well, why don't we have a battle and you can find out." Ash offered since he wished to prove his new friend's strength.

"Fine. Our last battle left a bad taste in my mouth, and I want my friend here for a chance at a little revenge." The violet haired one said as he release Chimchar from his ball.

"Turtwig, how do you feel about battling right now." Ketchum offered to his latest ally. The Grass warrior nodded, and took a few steps forward to show that he was ready for the fight.

"Ash, a Fire type like Chimchar has the advantage to a Grass type." Dawn explained to him, and was wandering if Ash knew that fundamental of fighting.

"Not this time. Turtwig and I are going to win this." The Pallet Town protector commented with confidence in his voice.

"I'll be the referee." The former Earth gym leader offered to the group.

"Ah, don't waste your time. There'll be no doubt who wins." Paul said with a sickening smirk.

"Careful, Paul, you were pretty much this confident the last time, and if I remember right - Renamon kicked your tail." Ash reminded as they continued to walk to the battlefield which was right beside a waterfall.

"You can go first." Paul stated since he felt confident that without Renamon this trainer was nothing to worry about.

"And I'm not holding back either." Ketchum stated before adding, "Turtwig, use Tackle." The creature did as he was told and raced right at the red monkey.

"Dodge it." Paul ordered and the monkey followed the command faithfully. "Now, Scratch." He added causing the simian to get up right in the slow one's face.

"Fast." Brock stated since he could tell this one has stepped up his speed since last time.

"Quick, dodge it." Ketchum stated, but instead the turtle stood his ground and took the blow. "Why didn't Turtwig dodge it like I said." Ash muttered to himself before coming up with a counter attack. "Now, use Razor Leaf." He shouted out.

"Take this." Turtwig said before unleashing his attack, and watched as his elemental opposite dodged the leaves with ease.

"Chimchar sure can move." Dawn pointed out even though the others on the fallen log could already see that.

"Use, Ember." Paul commanded and the creature followed through.

"Chimchar seems to have gotten stronger too." Brock said as he could see that the ember spheres seemed to be a little bigger since last time.

"Indeed." The canine added, and prayed that her partner knew what he was doing.

"Dodge it this time, Turtwig." Ketchum shouted out, and prayed that he would listen to this defensive move, but just like last time he took the hit: despite the type factor. "Why didn't you dodge it?" Ash questioned to the stubborn one. "Then, use Synthesis to heal yourself." Ketchum offered which this time he listened.

"At least he can do that much for Ash." Renamon commented while watching the new friend use the sun to restore energy.

"A waste of time. Now, Chimchar finish with Flame Wheel." Paul instructed once the enemy stopped glowing. The fire monkey did so, and charged straight at the enemy.

"This time you've got to dodge." Ash instructed and prayed that the little one would listen to him. Sadly he did not and got damaged once again. "Turtwig, are you okay?" The kind hearted trainer questioned, and was relieved when the shell-back got back to his feet. "Why are you refusing to dodge, Turtwig?" Ash questioned which didn't a reply from his field warrior.

"are you done yet?" Paul questioned since he was getting bored.

"Of course not. Turtwig, use Bite." Ash ordered and his friend followed the command, but was stopped by a net. "What the?!" The hero shouted before looking up at a familiar balloon. Three voices began to talk again, but was stopped by the fighter.

"Ember!" Paul called out to his Fire type.

"Ember?" Jessie repeated, and that was when they both became confused, so the monkey cleared up those cobwebs. The three complained while engulfed in flame, and the attacker clarified after the flames dyed out.

"You're wrecking our battle. Get lost." The purple haired grump ordered to the three above them. The team was surprised at the new man on the field, but the hero had something more urgent.

"Release my Turtwig." Ash shouted up to them since he wanted their usual song and dance to end quickly, so he could deal with the jerk.

"Turtwig?" James questioned while looking at the familiar face.

"What are you talking about - Renamon's in here." Meowth stated, and it was then the three saw the yellow furred wonder sitting on the fallen log.

"What are you: color blind?" Jessie shouted out to the human male of their little group.

"And here I thought Ash was pathetic." Paul commented while looking at three other Kanto locals.

"How dare you?! Educate the new twerp if you please." Jessie shouted and instructed to her teammate. After a nod of acceptance the male trainer he did just that.

"Look twerp, we are known as Team Rocket. The smartest, coolest, orneriest, the nastiest, cheapest, hungriest, cheapest…" James started to say, but after the last one he mumbled, and then started to bawl.

"Wow, that's tellin `im." The feline shouted at his old friend. Offended that he buckled that quickly while listing their traits.

"Carnivine, you'll help me." James said as he prayed his childhood pal would be on his side, but just like the others the plant preferred to smother for a bit. "Somehow, you learned this from me when I was younger. I'm sorry." He explained as his head was being munched on. "Bullet Seed." He instructed which the trap released, leapt, and attacked.

"Get out of the way, Paul." Ketchum suggested to the arrogant one.

"Be quiet. Chimchar, use Ember." Paul instructed to the two which one reluctantly did while the other followed without a second thought. The two attacks collided with one another, and it was then Ash decided to make his move.

"Turtwig, Razor Leaf, let's go!" The aura hero shouted out which with a mighty shout the grass turtle followed the command. Ketchum caught the creature on his way down, and then decided to clear the air.

"Renamon, end this." Ash called out to his partner who nodded, and did what she did best.

"Diamond Storm!" The vixen shouted and launched a focused barrage on the fuel source which caused an explosion which sent the attackers flying. The down side was that there was back blast from the explosion that sent Ash, Turtwig, Paul, and Chimchar over the edge. "Ash!" She shouted in alarm, but watched as the two humans had different ideas of how to get down.

'The pattern is way too easy.' Paul thought as he and his monkey effortlessly made it to ground. Ash on the other hand grabbed his turtle, held him tight as they went for a splash down, and then surfaced.

"Hey, Turtwig, are you okay?" Ash asked after reaching the surface, and the land beside it. The creature stated that he was okay, and it was then the humans above them spoke.

"Hey you two!" Dawn shouted down first.

"Are you alright?" Brock shouted out soon after. The two got out of the water and decided to answer their question.

"Yeah! Don't worry!" Ketchum shouted up to them while waving his arms to show that he was perfectly safe.

"Let's meet up on the far side of the forest." The stone gym leader said while pointing in the direction he was talking about.

"Sounds good to me. Renamon, stay with them. I'll be all right with Turtwig." Ash shouted out, and reluctantly the canine nodded in agreement. It was then Ash heard the familiar sound of a Poke`mon being returned, and remembered Paul was still with him.

"Paul, where are you going?" Ash asked as he saw his fellow trainer walk off. "Hey, wait up." He suggested while running into the forest after him. "Slow down, Paul." Ash said as he caught up to the rude dude. "What are you doing?" Ash asked just to shoot the breeze.

"Getting out of here." Paul answered back with closed eyes since he believed that if he pretended that Ash wasn't there maybe he'd go away.

"Well, since all of us are getting out of here let's all get out together." The hat wearing human offered with a big smile on his face.

"That sounds stupid." The other trainer said calmly, but his answer confused the pure hearted one.

"Hey, what's so stupid about helping each other out?" Ketchum questioned since he was raised to help out wherever you are needed.

"I don't need any help. Especially from a little kid from you." The other said as he took the time to stop and explain himself before walking on.

"What's with that guy?" Ash questioned aloud which was heard by the person he was questioning about.

"While your talking to yourself you might want to keep an eye out for Stantler. Since this is Bewilder Forest after all." The aggressive one commented, but the name wasn't ringing any bells to the hero.

"Bewilder Forest? What's that?" The Kanto native stated showing that he wasn't familiar in the least over what this region had to offer.

"If your in this forest without even knowing that. You're pathetic. I'm gone." Paul commented before walking off which left Ash and Turtwig to try to fend for themselves. The other members of Ash's team made it to the other side and the breeder was checking his book.

"Okay, we need to find the best way to get out of here." The map holder offered to the others as he held it out so all could see it. It was then the native of this region saw the name of their current location.

"Wait a sec. We're in Bewilder Forest? You're kidding." Dawn questioned just to make sure she was reading the words correctly.

"Is that a problem, Dawn?" Renamon questioned and could feel a knot forming in her stomach for her…partner's well being. As for Ash and his latest Grass themed beast they were still traveling down the same path Paul did.

"If we keep going this way we'll be out here soon." The human said with confidence and the creature muttered a 'yes' in agreement with his plan. A few paces after saying that they heard a rustling to their left, and after turning they saw a Stantler's head pop out. "Paul was right!" Ash shouted before going to his Dex.

"Stantler - The Big-Horn Poke`mon. It's large curved horns subtly bend the flow of air around them which creates a mysterious warp in reality." The small red device explained to Ash causing the trainer to recall the wounded Stantler from another quest.

"Hey, I think I remember that. Wow a warp in reality." Ash said and the deer-like creature wanted to have some fun so it did as Dexter explained causing the trainer and friend to think they saw a empty meadow.

'How'd we get here?' Turtwig thought before he and Ash started to walk, and stopped right where they started - the base of the waterfall. They go back, and the same happens only a desert this time.

"This has to be Stantler's warp in reality the Poke`dex as talking about." Ash said as he realized that they had been scammed, but he did have an idea how to fix it., "Turtwig, quick grab onto the top of my head." Seeing his friend was reluctant, so he added, "Don't worry about it. Just bite down hard." Seeing that he meant it the creature did as he was told.

'Just don't be mad.' Turtwig thought as he clamped down on his friend's head.

"That worked." Ash commented before looking all around and saw that he was surrounded. "Let's double check about these guys." He said before reading what his machine had to say. "Well, I have been meaning to try another aura trick, so why not now." The aura hero suggested as he used his talent on his eyes, but on like the Lucario from ages past that had his eyes closed Ketchum more or less had a barrier over his eyes.

"The human is unaffected, but at least we got the Poke`mon with him." A Stantler stated as he, and the other kept the turtle entranced.

"Come on, Turtwig, time to roll." The Pallet Town protector instructed only to look down and saw his creature use a swimming motion on his legs. "Come on, Turtwig, snap out of it." Ash stated, but no go, and he would never raise a fist to a confused creature, so he stuck with talking to him.

"Pathetic. Chimchar, help out the losers with Ember." Paul stated as he saw the commotion and decided to do something about it with his monkey friend. The creature did as he was told and aimed high which scared the wild ones away.

"Hmm?" Ash questioned while lowering his eye shields to see who saved him. 'Paul saved me? Weird.' Ash thought as he checked on Turtwig - who was back to his old self. The hero was about to speak before seeing a Stantler behind him, so he gave the horned one some room.

"Chimchar, use Flame Wheel." The purple haired one ordered. The simmering simian did so, and it was a direct hit. "All right, let's check you out. Poke`ball, get it." He commanded to the mechanical item.

"Paul thanks a lot for helping us." Ash said to his anti self after seeing the flawless capture.

"Yeah. Whatever." He commented since he really wasn't paying attention. "Please. This Stantler only knows a simple Tackle attack. What a waste of time. Get out!" Paul said after scanning the latest capture with his Poke`dex, and released it.

"I thought that Stantler wanted to be your friend." The raven haired one commented as he and Turtwig watched the deer walk back into the forest.

"Friends are just useless." The anti-Ash said as he walked off which upset the hero even more. His friends gathered around a different part of the forest, and the former Gym Leader decided to ask a question to the native.

"So, what's up with the Bewilder Forest?" He questioned since she never went into an explanation as to any details.

"There's a large group of Stantler who live here and like to totally confuse and bewilder anyone they find." She explained to them which put the fox in a more relaxed feeling since confusion wasn't that worrisome.

"I hope Ash and Paul are okay." Brock commented and the vixen wandered why a friend of Ash would worry about that other warrior.

"So long as you don't look at the light on the Stantler antler you'll be fine." The native informed the travelers.

"Are you two going to flap your gums all day or are you coming with me?" The Digimon questioned as she was already a few trees into the forest. Ash and Turtwig decided to stop for a while and have a red themed snack.

"Can't do much on an empty stomach, so here." Ash said after retrieving an apple and decided that his partner deserved it more than him.

"No, you eat it boss. I'll be fine." The Grass turtle explained while waving at the food in a dismissive fashion.

"Hey, it tastes good. So eat." Ash offered while holding the object closer to the beast. It had the same result, and to make sure the human got the gist of what he was saying Turtwig tried to force feed the human. "What are you doing?!" Ash shouted as he refused to eat the apple. "Man, you sure can be a stubborn Poke`mon when you want to be." The trainer pointed out to the beast.

"Just eat the food." The four legged one said as he waved at the ever present apple. 

"Oh, come on. You are too. Of course. That explains why you didn't dodge when I told you to back when we were battling with Paul." Ash explained and heard a familiar sound from the Grass type - growling stomach. "Come on. You can't fool me. I knew you were hungry." Ash said as he split the apple with his own hands. "Here, you can have half of mine." The hero offered while holding out the item in question.

'Maybe I can trust this guy.' Turtwig thought as he accepted the object and began to eat.

"Isn't this good, Turtwig?" Ash questioned to his Poke`mon.

"Sure is." The creature answered back.

"Now listen you and I are buddies, so we don't need to act like we don't know each other. I only asked you to dodge when we battled because it was the right thing to do." Ash explained to his latest friend who nodded when he realized that the human was right. "So, you and I will keep working and we'll end up as strong as we can be." Ash offered which the beast finished his half and clamped onto Ash's head.

'What's going on?' A Stantler thought as he appeared before the two. Believing he didn't have time to summon his eye shields Ash chose instead to run - right into a tree which woke up a swarm of Bedroll. "What a strange pair they are?" The deer muttered as he watched as they fled the scene.

"I know that scream anywhere." Renamon said as a familiar noise entered her ears, and with that the others saw the two that they were looking for.

"Hey, Ash." Brock stated while waving his hand, and it was at that time they all saw the lance based threat.

"Bedroll. Run!" Brock and Dawn shouted as the whole team tried to outrun the angered one only to have Ash run into and even angrier Poke`mon. The sight of the brown furred one caused the insects to turn back and fly the other way.

"Ursaring - The Hibernator Poke`mon. An excellent tree climber. It snaps trees with it's front legs, and eats the fallen fruit." Dawn's Dexter explained as she pointed the device at the angry bear.

'I'm not afraid.' Turtwig thought as he leapt up and bit the beast on the nose.

"Turtwig, what are you doing. Get off of there." Ash said and when he did not the trainer decided to hold the beast down which started to frighten the fearless one. The bear dismissed them both and went after the human.

"Think again." The Grass turtle thought as he Tackled the bear, which made him the target, but he dodged the fuzzy one's attack easily.

"Hey, your good at dodging after all." The trainer complimented which only angered the bear even more. "Let's finish this. Turtwig - Razor Leaf. Reanamon with me." Ash said as he slipped on one of his aura gloves, which he kept in his pocket, and channeled some aura into his right fist.

"Power Paw!" The yellow furred one shouted out as she and Ash connected with his face after a Razor Leaf attack.

"Now, that's a great combination!" The human exclaimed, and his two helpers liked it as well. Ursaring wasn't too pleased of loosing so he gave chase which got them out of the forest, but sadly the angered one still gave chase.

"Look out!" Paul shouted to the, in his opinion, useless ones. The team parted from the bear's path, and let the angered human do whatever it was he was planning on doing. "Chimchar, use Flame Wheel." He ordered which was preformed effortlessly. "Alright Poke`ball. Get it." He demanded to the device which caught the pre-weakened beast.

"Wow! Ursaring just got caught." Dawn stated even though everyone else saw what she just said.

"We'll see for how long." Ash stated which confused the new girl, so he added, "You see if Paul doesn't think they're strong enough he just let's them go." They watched as he scanned the sphere, and waited for his call.

"This one's not bad, so I think I'll keep it." Paul said as he added another one to his team. Being the gentleman that he was Ash decided to say something to this angered trainer.

"Hey, Paul…" He started to speak, but was cut off.

"Are you still holding onto that lame-o Turtwig?" He questioned which confused the honorable one. "You should have learned from our last battle that Poke`mon's pathetic." He explained what he walk talking about, but this time Ash wasn't bothered.

"You don't get it, do you? If you work with them then they'll get strong. Let's battle once more." Ash explained and challenged to his anti self.

"Forget it. You can't win." Paul explained and walked off.

"You scared since your defeat at the paws of Kyubimon?" Ash questioned to the other and prayed bringing up the past would egg him into battle.

"If you insist on making a fool out of yourself again then be my guest." The other said rather angrily since Paul still was haunted at that defeat. "After you." He offered once the two got stood across from one another.

"Ok. Turtwig, use Tackle." Ash offered which was carried out.

"Great. Here we go again. Dodge then use Scratch." Paul commanded which was also carried out as well.

"Turtwig, dodge it." Ash stated which was followed through which surprised his friends greatly. "Now, use Razor Leaf!" Ash called out which was followed.

"Ember." The other stated and followed.

"Turtwig, use Bite." The raven haired one said causing the turtle to charge straight ahead.

"That Turtwig is pretty fast." Brock pointed out which the girls agreed with him.

"Chimchar, use dig." Paul ordered which threw Ash for a loop.

"Pretty amazing of Chimchar using dig." The breeder pointed out as they all saw the attack.

"Now, use Scratch." Paul ordered, but the Grass type was a little nervous about the empty battlefield. Ash did have a trick up his sleeve and knew that there was no rule against it - aura sight: the one Lucario explained to him. He did so, and could see the monkey beneath them.

"Turtwig can't tell where the attack is coming from." Dawn informed them.

"But I can." Ash said and then knew what to do about it. "Turtwig, Tackle to your left - now." Ash commanded which the turtle followed, and it was a clean hit.

"How did he?" Paul questioned as he saw that Ash's eyes were closed, so how did the trainer know where the attack would come from.

"Use Dig." Paul ordered and with that the monkey tried again. Once again the Kanto native 'saw' the movements again. Despite the fire monkey's taunting Ash remained calm.

'So, he is skilled without those gloves. I may have to train him how to hone that skill without them completely.' Renamon thought as she watched as Ash countered the next Scratch attack with a Bite attack to the face.

"Enough of this. Use Ember." Paul said as he tried to use a frontal assault since sneak attacks aren't cutting it.

"Quick, into one of the holes." Ash commanded and the turtle dove in before the attack could hit.

"Good idea to use one of the holes like that." Brock complimented his friend as he watched the fight.

"Exactly what I hope you would do." Paul stated, and when he saw the confused look on the trainer's face he filled him in with, "Use Ember on that hole." This worried Ash, but the attack was heard in the hole.

'Have to time it just right.' Turtwig thought as he waited until the hole before him was lit, so he quickly ran into one of the other tunnels connected to another hole, and caved it in behind him for safety measure.

"Fire attacks are really effective on Grass types." Dawn pointed out to the others.

"If that is the case then where is Turtwig?" Renamon questioned to the others which was true as none of them saw the turtle anywhere, but his partner did.

"Turtwig, Razor Leaf barrage." Ash commanded which Turtwig leapt out of one of the holes and did as he commanded. This angered the opponent even more since he did not like being upstaged again.

"Chimchar use Flame Wheel and wrap this up." Paul ordered once he saw the turtle back on the ground.

"Okay, back in the hole." Ash offered to his partner who seemed a little iffy on the idea. "You're going to have to trust me." He stated and with that he did it again just before the wheel could land the final blow.

"Please. Aim Ember at that hole and wrap this up." Paul stated and had his monkey land right on top of the hole the opponent dove into so there would be no surprise attacks.

"Now, use Bite." Ash commanded to his friend.

"Coming at ya!" Turtwig shouted as he clamped onto Chimchar's head good and tight. This made his friend's smile for his quick thinking.

"Chimchar down in the hole." Paul commanded, but Ash had in inkling about his plan so he had a counter.

"Turtwig, release and Razor Leaf on the hole walls." Ash shouted out which the turtle did the moment Chimchar was in the hole. The Fire monkey looked up and was slammed by all the falling debris.

'Well played Ash.' Renamon thought with a smile since she liked seeing his strategy in action. With his creature buried Paul was angered that Ash knew of his plan again.

"Turtwig, use another hole to retrieve Chimchar." Ketchum offered and his friend obeyed. This was a factor that Ash was always going to have - honor, even to an enemy. After a few moments the turtle came back up with an out cold Chimchar.

'I lost again to this pathetic trainer.' Paul thought as he recalled his Poke`mon since he did not wish the simian to embarrass him even more by thanking Turtwig for digging him out.

"Looks like this makes it me - 2 and you - zip." Ash said to the walking away trainer, and the Digital Monster plainly heard a growl of frustration from the opponent which pleased the fox based creature greatly. With nothing else to do the team continued on to their next stop.


	9. Chapter 9

In penguin we trust

"We're ready to go in the performance round in the Jubilife City Poke`mon Contest, so let's give a big hand to our first coordinator from Twinleaf Town - Dawn." An announcer said as a spot light flicked on over a blue haired girl in a simple green dress.

"Piplup, here we go. Spot light!" The coordinator said as she chucked her Poke`ball into the air which released the blue themed bird in question. "All right, Piplup, BubbleBeam." She commanded which was obeyed. The attack spun around and around the bird which ended in a star shower display, but then there was a snag.

"I'm getting dizzy!" Piplup shouted as he fell from his high spot, and fell on his head. The whole contest announcement was Dawn playing pretend, and she with the others were by a lake - having lunch.

"Nice try, but not quit." Ash said as he held an 'x' sign.

"Try again." The vixen said as she showed off an 'x' of her own.

"No one said it would be easy." Brock commented while holding up his 'x' and manning the grill. Their words meant a lot to her, and she took them all to heart.

"We may have messed up, but we look great doing it." Dawn said proudly to the others.

"That for sure." The penguin shouted in his native tongue.

"Piplup, use BubbleBeam and spin at the same time." Dawn commanded and it was obeyed. At first it was perfect, but just like last time the bird lost control causing all to try to evade the big raindrops.

'Save the grill. Save the grill.' Brock thought as the picked up and tried to keep the warm food safe. Renamon on the other hand was rapid punching each and every one of the balls that fell near herself or Ash.

'That try failed too.' Dawn thought in defeat and saw that her three friends gave her three red 'x' signs for the second attempt. Unknown to them were their constant foes - Team Rocket in the same area, but not in the best of condition.

"Oy, I haven't eaten is so long my mouth is thinking of goin on strike." The white cat of Kanto said to the others.

"That works for me." James commented as he felt the same as his male friend. His small, pink friend muttered something in agreement as well.

"Starving!" The blue blob of blunder shouted for the others to hear.

"Fighting won't feed us. And we will never find the horde of plenty foolishly flat on our backs." Jessie informed the others and with all their might - got up to their feet, and began to stand and look around.

"I'm upright…more or less. So, where's my reward?" The sensible male stated and questioned while looking about. His answer came in the tone of his crush.

"Dead ahead!" The red haired one squealed to the others.

"Munchy mountain!" Meowth shouted once he saw what she was looking at, and really liked the sight of all that food.

"Wow! An orchard of goodies without the work." James stated after catching sight over what his friends were looking at.

"Picked at the peak of freshness with gobs of greatness as a reward of us being us." Jessie said as she grew very happy of this sight.

"Fangs don't fail me now. It's feedin time!" The cat said before grabbing one of the items, and was about to eat it before a voice stopped him.

"Hey, zip that lip." The human female of the team shouted causing the cat to bite into his left arm instead.

"Now I got bite marks." The furious feline shouted up at her.

"And we've got company." The female human said which confused her formerly four legged friend, so she clarified. "Think of it. Those footprints came from the Poke`mon who harvested this heap and who'll be beside themselves with anger if we steal it/" She informed while pointing at the duck footprints right beside them.

'If we steal this then Ash will be onto us in no time at all.' James thought before seeing his two friends make grass baskets, pour the mountain into them, give a basket to the other two, and sped off.

"Aw, let them be angry." The girl and gato shouted as they fled not knowing that the guy of the team was already having second thoughts. As they fled a Quagsire, Poliwag, Golduck, and Wooper were coming back with more food for the pile.

'Hmm. I thought we certainly retrieved more food than this.' The blue themed fowl thought even though most of his kind would be throwing a temper tantrum about the whole thing.

"We're going to starve!" The other three shouted while bawling up a storm.

"Do not worry. I am sure we will find the missing food if we start looking now." The duck billed one commented, and with that they started looking about. IN another part of the location the thieves had summoned their transport, and were putting their taken treats into it.

"Upsie Daisy." James said as he picked up the bag Wobbuffet was offering to him.

"That's all there is and there ain't no more." Meowth said to the one putting them into their mechanical Magicarp.

"With these berry baskets we will never have to worry about gift giving again." James said as a hint that he didn't wish to hold onto them any more then they had to before seeing one of them roll out of the baskets.

"Don't worry, I got it!" The cat shouted, but his action unfortunately caused a catapult affect with some of their stolen goods. The group screamed in disbelief at the sight of some of their food flying away.

"De ja ve. Except we're looking for what might have been." Jessie informed in a miserable tone as she and the others were looking for their lost stolen goods. "Someone's singing." She added after hearing a rhythmic beat going on to the left of her. They followed to the sound to a clearing that had three very large duck billed monsters dancing around some food.

"I'll give you 10 to one odds that those are our berry banqueters." James said since they were duck-like as were the footprints.

"Those pointy footprints don't square up with those big feet." Meowth pointed out at the size of the feet before them, and how they didn't seem the same as the ones before.

"I'll say one thing. They sure know how to have a good time." The red head informed them at the sight of the happy dancing before them.

"And that would make givin them those three party animals to the boss for a present the perfect political ploy." Meowth said to them and explained how he saw the three coming into his room, and after a while their boss joining the three to form a mariachi band of sorts. This was one thing they really couldn't see their serious boss doing, but neither had the heart to shoot that idea down, so the two rolled with it.

"We'll be in great shape, too." Jessie shouted out with joy.

"Sporting our fat wallet." James said after her.

"Plumped up and rich." The three of them shouted together. It wasn't until they saw another figure approaching the dancers that the three ducked down into the thick grass again.

"Excuse me, Ludicolo." The Golduck said to the three. "I hate to say this, but those are our berries, and we would like them back." He said to the three in a calm tone before gesturing to his three tagalongs who began to speak.

"Those sad sacks are sayin that that big sack of berries that just blasted off was theirs in the first place." Meowth explained what the three were saying to his team, but disregarded the Golduck since he wasn't interested in a polite poultry.

"Now we know who not to be afraid of." James pointed out even though there was something different about the Golduck before them.

"I'll do you one better than that. First we convince those singing saps that we've got their best interest at heart, and that their trust in us is well deserved." The girl of the team stated to the others.

"And then we grab the grateful gabby gullible." James said soon after her comment since he knew how her mind worked.

"Yeah, that's right. We bad." Meowth commented with an evil grin which the others did as well.

"So, where did you three procure those berries?" Golduck questioned while making sure there were no signs of lying coming from his fellow Water class.

"All we know is that these berries, so we thought that they were a gift from Arceus for all of our wonderful singing." The three answered back which the blue one saw that they were telling the truth.

"That's a lie." The three others shouted back in protest.

'Shot into the air, and our were stolen. If they aren't the thieves than perhaps…' The duck Poke`mon thought before hearing something coming to his left. The clapping came from white wigged/ black cloaked strangers.

'What's all this about.' The seven thought before listening to what they were, and why they were here. They were things called judges, and they were in favor of the food being in favor of the Ludicolo, but the Kanto duck had a feeling that the three had no idea who they were. As the red/gray haired one spoke Golduck couldn't help, but smell their berries all over these visitors.

"Before you leave tell me: why do all of you smell like every berry that my friends and I have collected." Golduck questioned calmly which got them nervous, but Meowth knew what to do.

"Hey, what did you say!" The cat shouted and even though the humans did not know what Golduck said they took it as bad considering how their friend reacted.

"Fighting words deserves fighting time." Jessie said as she and James took off their costumes and had Poke`balls ready to be thrown. "Seviper, let's go!" She called out to reveal the black/purple snake.

"Let's fight!" The serpent shouted after emerging from his sphere.

"You, too, Carnivine." James said as he threw his sphere, but just like always the plant circled back and bit him in the head. "Carnivine, I am not a piece of fruit! No matter what anyone says!" The human shouted out knowing that the three others were looking right at him.

"Poison Tail!" The woman said which was obeyed, but Golduck stood ready, and actually caught the base of the tail before it could reach his body.

"Stay." The Kanto duck ordered which the snake nodded in agreement.

"Carnivine, quick, your strongest Bite." James said as a way to free the snake, but the moved worked out badly due to Golduck using the tail as a sword and scored three good slashes before flinging the human owned creature at the attackers.

"Fall back. All of you - head back into the brush." The blue themed one shouted which caused them to do as he said, and run away. Once hidden away the four watch as that human bunch and the group nearly busted a gut when they saw the humans being spun around and the there others being juggled.

'Is he the one to lead us?' The Quagsire thought as they decided to get back to fleeing, and wondered if there was anyone else that was better suited than this duck.

"The next time we decide to befriend a Poke`mon let's choose a Nosepass." Jessie shouted once they were free Back with the heroes Dawn called it for training, and helped Brock with food while Ash fed his Poke`mon and Renamon simply began to eat.

'Another great meal.' Renamon thought as she ate, but set some time aside to watch Ash watched his Starly and Turtwig eat. 'I wonder if he's good with children.' She found herself thinking, and as the warrior tried to forget that that thought ever came up the penguin fled their campsite.

"Strange, Piplup was just here before." Brock commented as he noticed the one in blue was missing from their group. This caused the other two humans to take notice that they were short one Water squirter.

"This should be far enough. I doubt even Renamon could hear me here." Piplup said once he was in a different section of the brush. "Here goes nothing." The creature added before leaping up, and attempted the attack again, but it ended the same way - disastrously. Quickly approaching them were the other Water Poke `mon who seemed to be having an argument.

"I am certain that those humans and their allies are the rightful ones that stole our food. We just need to go back and confront them about it." Golduck explained in a civil tone as he chased after the others.

"Forget it! We're gonna find a Poke`mon that isn't afraid of fighting those Ludicolo." Quagsire shouted back as he and the other three ran in front of the water fowl.

"I am telling you that I am certain that they are not to blame." The duck tried to reason with them, but was denied. "You might want to…" He offered to them since he saw an obstacle in their path, but they shut him up.

"What's that…" Piplup muttered as he was coming out of the dizzy spell only to be ran over by three Poke`mon. Once that had occurred Golduck walked over to his team and sat on his heels. "What's the matter?" The owned creature questioned since he believed they were in distress.

"It is nothing, little one. Please, run along and enjoy your day." Golduck said in a calm tone since he knew that they could resolve this problem just fine.

"Nothing?! You call losing our food supply - Nothing?!" The Poliwag shouted at their supposed leader.

"Just leave it all to me." Piplup said and walked off, and just like a flack of Mareep the other three followed the little guy. Even though he had his doubts the Kanto creature followed after them, but noticed that someone else was watching them as they walked off.

"I'm almost afraid to ask, but what is Piplup doing with all those Poke`mon?" Dawn questioned after Ash recalled his team, and they found where Renamon last smelled the bird in question only to watch them leave.

"Going on a march." Ash answered back before checking dexter about the Orange League Island creature.

"Golduck - the Duck Poke`mon. It makes it's homes in lakes, and is able to swim faster than a gold mentalist." The machine said to them which all sounded very impressive.

"Hmm? Looks like Piplup is leading them all somewhere." The owner of said creature pointed out to the rest of them.

'Whatever gave you that idea.' Renamon thought in her most sarcastic tone before looking back at the group, and knew the creature Ash looked up saw them as clear as day.

"Let's follow them, and see where." The Pewter City Gym Leader offered to them which they approved and did just that. Within the lake the heroes were near the villains were enjoying their ill-gotten gain.

"Wouldn't you know - we finally have a great plan. Then we're faced with hyperactive, Poke`mon." James said to the others as he ate away a berry of blue.

"We've got the berries. Mark my words. That Golduck will be back." Jessie comforted her old friend that the Kanto duck, and crew, will return.

"It'll be a whole lot easier giving that one to the boss then a bunch of kooks who ate too much candy." Meowth added, and none of them realized how true their words were.

"Is that them?" Piplup questioned after they sang a marching song, which Golduck only kept the beat by clapping his hands, but stopped when he saw three singing birds.

"Yes, but we need to exercise caution when dealing with bigger opponents." Golduck offered only to see the Piplup already storming over to them.

"Excuse me! Excuse me!" The penguin shouted which they did hear.

"Someone say something?" Ludicolo in the middle asked while looking around before looking down. With that Piplup started explaining the tale again which the larger ones answered back.

"Who are those, Poke`mon?" Dawn asked the others.

"They're Ludicolo." Brock answered her since he does have one, and he is a very good friend of the family.

"Let me see." The new girl said as she activated her dexter for some information.

"Ludicolo - The carefree Poke`mon. When Ludicolo listens to happy music it's power grows stronger, and it just has to dance." The pink machine explained to them before she closed the lid.

"So, what is Piplup doing anyways?" Dawn asked the rest of them since she was a bit lost.

"It would seem Piplup is trying to be like Ash, and help out those wild Poke`mon with a problem.

"Look, kid, this isn't your fight, so just run along." The three said as one before

dousing the creature with a small Water Gun.

"Let's see how you like this!" Piplup shouted and used Peck, but the three countered with Growl that acted as a barrier. "I've got everything under control." The creature said after feeling the skeptical look Golduck was giving him even though the Kanto bird was wandering if he needed a hand.

"I think your right, Renamon. I think Piplup is trying to help them by acting as their leader." Dawn said back even though the others could clearly see that for themselves.

"Piplup? Then the twerps must be hovering close by." James informed the others as he decided to take a look around with the periscope and just stumbled onto this scene.

"Come on: details." The female to his left shouted out and wished the periscope could be used by all at the same time.

"It would appear that Piplup has befriended Golduck and his crew." The human reported back, but did not understand why since the water fowl clearly had some serious skill of his own.

"It's perfect! They'll tangle with the Looney Ludicolo, and wear themselves out. Then we'll grab Golduck." Jessie said to them which James secretly did not like. After spending so much time with Ash, in their own way, he has developed his own sense of honor. Sadly he liked Jessie too much to oppose her, so he just went along with her plan.

"Here I come again!" Piplup shouted out, but this time the taller trio simply sidestepped away, and the little one slammed belly first into their periscope.

'Hmm?' Ash, Golduck, and Renamon thought as they saw Piplup seemed to have stopped above the water instead of falling in. The owners of the periscope saw this as well, and didn't like it.

"Huh?! It's a plastic Piplup! You're fogging the lens. Out of the way." James said while gently swiveling the scope from left to right, but the human female didn't like that method so she butted in.

"Out of my way!" She shouted to James before giving the scope a good hard spin which sent it into the water.

"Piplup." Dawn said with worry before racing onto the scene with the other three right behind her. "It's the twerps and Renamon too. Right on cue. With Renamon's ferocity and Ludicolo lunacies - how can we loose. Let's grab the whole bunch." She said after seeing the heroes through the periscope and felt quit happy with that idea.

"What's going on out there?" The coordinator questioned to the others as she saw bubbles and had a feeling that they weren't fart bubbles.

"Nothing good." Renamon commented, and knew that she was right. The penguin, who was still mad of being flung, did not notice the surfacing vehicle, or the opening hatch when the metal device has surfaced.

'I know that Magicarp.' Ash thought once the water craft completely surfaced, and got out a water bottle from his backpack to drink in order to pass the time since he knew what was coming next.

"They're done." Renamon whispered to Ash as he was putting the empty bottle in his pack, and so the hero decided to get down to business.

"What ever you guys are doing here it can't be good." Ash pointed out once his bottle was safely back in the pack.

"Your so selfish. Stealing all your Poke`mon will be good for us." Jessie stated to the hero.

"Think of someone else for a change." James added to her comment with his Mime Jr. agreeing with what he said. The owned water fowl finally made it to land and decided to do something about it.

"It looks like Golduck's gaggle of pals have that pipsqueak on the Poke` payroll." Meowth commented once Piplup explained that he was the guardian of the friends of Golduck.

"Some bodyguard." The red head commented and did not see the beginner level bird a threat.

"They needed someone to fight for them and Piplup agreed." Dawn said while giving her head a firm head smack.

'But now I am having my doubts.' Golduck thought and wondered if he should step in and settle all of this, but before he could do anything the little one took off and started using Peck on their ship.

"Piplup, stop." Dawn called out once the penguin was flung back into the water with a sway of the fish's tail.

"Renamon, could you lend a paw?" Ash asked and gestured over to the sub before them.

"Diamond…" She started to say, but noticed the villains retreated back into the ship out of safety. "Any other ideas, Ash." Renamon stated to her friend who pulled out a piece of paper from his back pocket.

"I knew that we'd be facing one of their subs eventually so I printed off a couple of specs from the internet." Ash informed before looking at specs for the Magicarp submarine.

"Um, Ash, it's turning it's sights on us." Dawn commented before the fish fired two smaller Magicarps that turned into ropes that trapped Golduck and company along with the Ludicolo and Renamon.

'Hmm? Interesting strategy.' The vixen thought as she felt bound, but not helpless. Piplup, coming out of the water again saw that her new friends, and the Ludicolo were being pulled in which caused him to try to help.

'Must help them. Must help them.' Piplup thought as he pulled on the ropes, but after seeing that had no effect the bird attacked the metal fish which held no affect. Still the penguin would not give up.

"I know Piplup promised to help them out and all, but I hope it isn't a big mistake." Dawn said as she watched her friend put all his heart into helping the others.

'It won't be if I can find the right pipe.' Ash thought as he looked at the specs, and hoped he would find the answer in time.

"That pretentious Poke`mon's a pain." Jessie said as she watched all the efforts through the periscope, and was getting bored with the whole sight.

"Yeah…well I've got just the right thing to ease your pain." The feline said to her with confidence in his tone. Once the penguin was flung from the right fin again Meowth launched several homing remoraid missiles which hit their target.

'That hurt.' Piplup thought after getting up from the first attack only to be struck again. Even with a BubbleBeam attack that only struck a few they still kept up their attack.

"Look at them all." Brock commented before looking at Ash. 'Now would be a very good time for an Ash hero moment.' The gym leader thought as Ash was looking at the map. Inside the three were feeling pretty confident in what was happening outside.

'Ah, there's the fuel line. Now to weaken that spot.' Ketchum commented once he spotted the right spot to end this. As Piplup was being pounded Ash swapped his casual gloves to his warrior gloves.

"It's useless. I-I just can't beat them." The Sinnoh bird muttered in defeat as the flying fish surrounded him. Dawn saw this and decided to try to cheer her partner on.

"Piplup. Piplup, you've got to get up. You promised to help everyone, so you can't stop now." Dawn informed while running closer to her partner who heard it all. "Yes, you can…YOU CAN DO IT!" She shouted to her partner.

'She's right. I can do it.' The flightless one thought before leaping into the air. 'Time to try this contest move under battle conditions.' Piplup thought once he reached up to where they were, and started doing the attack.

'Now, that's cool.' Brock and Ash thought in awe, and so was Dawn. The group watched as the BubbleBeam ring destroyed all the opponents, and this time the attacker landed on his feet instead of his face.

"That's showin `em, Piplup. Yeah. But your not done yet, so keep it up." Dawn requested which was followed by another BubbleBeam ring that went around the Magicarp which caused a whirlpool that caused the metal beast to release the others and sink into the water.

"Now that they stopped going gaga, and we've taken over any other bright ideas?" Jessie demanded to the cat creature who was feverishly typing on the console only to have nothing happen.

"Since we're all going down the drain I suggest we dance." Meowth offered to his female friend which irritated her even more.

"Who do you think you are? A Ludicolo?" The red head questioned out of anger before realizing that their ship was spinning faster and faster causing her to become dizzy. The human heroine of the group was praising her partner for what just happened.

"So, is everyone here, okay?" Brock questioned as he checked on the Golduck and his friends. Ash checked on the Ludicolo and Renamon which he gave his partner a hug.

'He's so affectionate, but I'm okay with that.' The fox thought as she returned the gesture. Their moment of peace lasted a few moments before they all heard a familiar bubbling coming before them.

"Sometimes air is as good as food." Jessie said after the craft surfaced and they all got out for some air.

"Especially if you haven't been breathing much." James added since it felt most of their time today was within the tin can. Ash saw this as his chance to thwart them for the day.

"Time for a tag team, Renamon." Ash said to her and lit up both gloves with his aura. "Aura Sphere Barrage." The Pallet Town protector shouted and launched several spheres at where he saw the main part of the fuel line was, and once it was exposed the fox did the rest.

"Diamond Storm!" The digital vixen shouted and unleashed a real barrage attack at the exposed spot which resulted in an explosion. All of a sudden it started raining various berries which surprised them all.

"This is different." Brock commented at the unusual weather.

"Tell me about it. How did Team Rocket manage to get all these berries?" Ash questioned to the others, and it was then the blue duck heard his comment.

"I am sorry for…" Golduck tried to explain himself, but the trio cut him to the quick.

"It's okay. Don't worry about it." They said back and shook on it to make it official. Again the peaceful moment of Water class was cut short by Team Rocket as they trudged to shore.

"And to think I used to love swimming as a girl." Jessie said once she, and the others made it to land. It was then they saw fourteen angry eyes - glaring at them. "You're probably wondering where we got those berries. We were actually holding them for you for safekeeping, really." Jessie tried to weasel.

"You can't blame us for wanting to have a little snack." James said as a way for backing up his female friend's claim.

"We are dead." Wobbuffet said to them since he knew that they knew that Team Rocket was the thieves. The pink creature comment in agreement, and it was then Golduck and the lead Ludicolo tried a unified Water Gun attack on the invaders of the land.

'Is it possible that there is something going on between those two humans?' Renamon thought as she heard their conversation before flying away too far, and it sounded like Jessie approved of romantic moments over battle moment, but the rest of the conversation had the canine doubt that there was a connection between the two.

"Come on, guys, let's help them pick up all these berries." Ash said to the others, and with a little bit of teamwork they were able to rebuild the pile. Once it was done the group decided it was time to go.

"Take care, everyone." Dawn shouted out to them while waving good-bye.

"See you around." Ash added while waving, but Brock decided to remain silent. Once they said their good-byes the team went on their way.

"Wow, if it wasn't for Piplup none of this would have gotten straightened out." Ash stated, and thought the young starter did a bang up job.

"Piplup, you were awesome." Dawn praised which her partner did not mind one bit. "Piplup, let's try out our move again." She offered and the bird stood ready. "Piplup, use BubbleBeam." She shouted out which the bird did, and perfectly this time.

"That's a lot better." The canine stated as she watched the show above her.

"Hey, Dawn, Piplup's looking strong for sure." The stone expert stated to her, and had a feeling the fight helped out greatly.

"I think we're both ready for our Poke`mon contest now." The coordinator commented to them, and felt that statement to be true. "Great, Piplup, you're looking good." She shouted out to her best Water class.

"I know." The bird answered back after landing on the ground.

"Hey, race you to Jubilife City." She offered to them and ran ahead of them. The canine decided to remain with her partner, so she didn't really try until Ketchum chose to go faster.


End file.
